Poison Whiskey
by ztarose23
Summary: When a girl comes knocking on their motel door, Sam and Dean can't help but let her in and agree to give her the help she is begging for. However, when everything goes horribly wrong, can they all learn to forgive themselves? Rated M for a reason. SamxDeanxOC
1. Chapter 1

I stood there at the door for what felt like hours, staring at the chipping read paint and the number that read 10. It was the farthest room down in the motel, far away from any prying eyes and ears. It just on the outskirts of town, surrounded by trees and fields, the road leading into town, or if you chose to think of it that way, to absolutely nowhere.

I had spent months tracking the Winchester brothers down. I needed help and they were the only ones who could deliver.

I shuffled my feet nervously, blowing a strand of my dark hair out of my eyes. Part of me had hoped when I arrived that they wouldn't be here, but that famous black Impala was sitting out in the drive, and hadn't moved in the time I had been there.

Get it together Thea, I told myself. You've gotta knock sometime.

I sighed and brought my hand to the door, knocking softly, hoping that they wouldn't give me too hard of a time.

I heard very quiet shuffles and I knew what was coming. Sort of. After doing as much research on them as possible, I know that they don't trust easy. Luckily for them, I don't really have anything to hide.

The door opened a crack, revealing a brown eye that I knew immediately to be Sam Winchester. It was narrowed and I knew that there was a gun pointing at me through the door.

"Yeah?"

"Hi, my name is Thea Karpoulous, and I need your help." Ugh, it sounded so much worse when I actually said it out loud.

"What?"

I winced. "I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you. Garth sent me. He's a family friend."

Sam's eye narrowed even more at the mention of Garth. "What do you mean?"

"I'm in trouble, Sam." I knew I shouldn't have used his name so fast, but I didn't have a choice. "I've been cursed by a goddess and I need her dead."

The door flew open and I saw Dean Winchester in a defensive position, gun pointed at me ready to strike.

"Move in slowly," he growled at me. "Any sudden movements I won't hesitate to shoot."

I nodded and went in cautiously. I took heed of my surroundings. One door, in and out, a bathroom to the far side. Two windows that looked nailed down. Newspaper clippings, beer bottles and fast food wrappers were thrown around haphazardly. There were two computers on a table and mounds of books piled up around them.

I sent up a quick prayer that I would be okay for the next few hours. I had to explain.

I looked at Dean. "May I please sit down?"

He looked caught off guard by my politeness. "Sit slowly and keep your hands where I can see them."

I sank down onto the bed, suddenly weary. I was finally here, but now all I wanted to do was sleep. I knew I had to wait though. There were so many more important things to talk about.

"I need your help," I said. Better to get straight to the point.

"With what?" asked Sam, sitting in a chair in front of me. Dean pulled one up as well till both were directly in front, staring at me warily.

"I need to kill a goddess."

They stared at me before Dean laughed harshly. "What makes you think we-"

"Please don't treat me like an idiot, Dean." That shut him up quick. "I've heard about how many gods you've killed, angels, demons, everything. If it exists, you've killed it."

They shot a glance at each other. They knew it was as true as I did. "So, what goddess are you, uh, wanting dead?" asked Sam.

"And why?" chimed in Dean.

"I've been cursed by Aphrodite."

They looked at me. "Aphrodite?"

"Yes. I've been cursed since I was born."

Sam shifted uncomfortably. "With…what?"

I took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm really sorry, but I have to tell you guys the entire story, or else it won't make any sense."

I waited for them to nod before I started.

"I am first generation American. My parents are both Greek and came over a few years before I was born. My dad, Theo, was a really good looking guy in his younger days and ended up having a love affair with a woman he knew as Adonia. She was beautiful and witty and everything that my dad wanted in a girl, but he didn't…love her. And she didn't love him either.

They had an affair for a while, but once when my dad was out working, he saw my mom. Now, my mom has never been a knock out, not even close. She's pretty yes, but even she thought my dad was way out of her league looks wise. It didn't matter though, because as it turns out, my mom and my dad are the epitome of soul mates."

"Wait, soul mates?" Dean asked.

"Yes. Like, completely fated. Their souls find each other every time they die, that sort of thing." I replied. "It's sort of weird, but it happens sometimes.

Anyway, my dad immediately started to pursue my mother. It was like he couldn't help it. He dropped Aphrodite, obviously not thinking anything would come of it. As we know, however, hell hath no greater fury than a woman scorned.

She was pissed, to say the least. I mean, in her mind, she's Aphrodite! She ends it, not some mortal peon. However, when the pagans were kicked out of their place in the heavens, they had really strict rules set on them, especially her. She couldn't just randomly kill people. She could maim or seriously injure, but she couldn't just smite someone like she would've done back in the good old days.

It didn't matter though, because Aphrodite is known for her cruelty. She came up with a plan, pretending to be happy for him, giving him her blessing, like he needed it to begin with. At their wedding, she showed up with three men. My dad was really nervous about it because who wants an ex-girlfriend coming to their wedding? Especially one like Aphrodite. Anyway, Aphrodite gave them a little box. She told them that it was an ancient practice of her family to give a newly wedded couple a painted box dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. She said that when they arrived at their new home, where ever it may be, they should open it and all of the good luck Aphrodite provides would pour into their home.

Well, being happy and stupid, they did just that. They decided to move to America and opened the box that they had set on the mantle in their bedroom. I was born nine months later, and my parents were happier than ever."

I stopped for a minute. The boys were looking at me intently, caught up in my story. They looked surprised when I stopped.

"Could I have a beer?"

Sam nodded and got up to grab me one. When he came back, I opened it and took a long drink from it. I needed to steel myself for the rest of the story.

"When they brought me home from the hospital, they said that the house felt…different. Like something really ominous was there. They tried to brush it off, not wanting that to dampen the mood of having brought me home. Everything was fine for a little while and they put me down for the night and went to their room.

My mom heard me cooing later in the baby monitor and she almost went back to sleep when she heard something else. Chanting. It was so quiet she could barely hear it but she did. She woke up my dad and they ran to my room where they saw Aphrodite and the three men from the wedding standing around my crib, holding their hands over me. Mom said that there was this gold light in the room but the air was heavy and thick, everything wrong.

They weren't supposed to walk in, but Aphrodite didn't care. I bet it made her get off on it even more. She saw my parents and stopped, but the men kept going.

My mom started to scream. 'What are you doing here? Get the fuck out of our home! Get away from our baby!' she said to her.

Aphrodite just smiled a cold smile. 'Not before I leave without finishing your wedding gift.' She told my mother.

'Adonia,' my father said, desperate to get her away from me, 'Please get away from out child. Please.'

She had enough. She pinned them both to the wall with a flick of her hand. She went over to the crib and picked me up. My mother started to scream but Aphrodite threatened to cut out not only my mother's tongue, but mine as well if she didn't shut up.

'Theo, do you know who I am?' she asked him.

'Adonia Aphroditia,' he replied to her.

'Gods, you really are stupider than I thought, Theo. Did it ever strike you as odd the things I could do to you, the way I could make you feel, the thoughts I could put into your head?'

'I'm sorry,' he told her. 'I simply thought it was because you had been with so many men you just knew what you were doing.'

'No, Theo. It's because I've been around for hundreds of thousands of years.' Thunder cracked and the earth shook my mother later told me. The room glowed white hot, and right in front of them, Aphrodite and the men with her changed. Their clothes were the ones depicted in ancient paintings. My mother told me that they looked old, regal, beautiful and deadly.

She handed me over to one of the men and walked up to my parents. 'I am the goddess Aphrodite, and you, Theo Karpoulous, have angered me greatly.'

My father cried out, 'What did I do?'

She snapped then. Years of anger built and she screamed at them. 'You left me, the goddess of love, for that cow next to you. What could she have ever given you that you felt the need to leave me for?'

My mother, she's ballsy as shit and a stereotypical Greek mother. Aphrodite had been threatening me, her newborn child, and let me tell you boys, that mothers don't take kindly to that."

Dean grimaced. "Yeah, we know."

"My mother told Aphrodite, 'We are soul mates, real ones. Not the false ones that you and your sons create. We were fated to be together.' Aphrodite calmed herself then. She walked back over to the guy holding me. 'Eros,' she said to him, 'Put the child back in the crib and finish the ritual.'

My parents started flailing wildly. 'What ritual?' they screamed. 'What are you doing to our baby, please don't kill our child.'

'Please, I'm not going to kill the babe,' Aphrodite replied to them. 'No, my darlings, I'm doing much, much worse.' She reached down into the crib and stroked my cheek and looked back to my parents. 'On her eighteenth birthday, your daughter Thea will awaken with a curse upon her. Men will feel drawn to her, an overpowering desire to possess her, and soon enough, she will be besieged with men trying to get to her. If she's lucky, she will be ripped apart by them. However, I sincerely doubt that will happen. The first man to breach her maidenhead will be tied to her for all of eternity, her soul never parting from his, in life or in death. I guarantee you that it will not be someone she wants. She will be cursed with beauty and desirability. Pain, death and violence will follow her wherever she goes, even as a child. She will be remembered for thousands of years as your generation's Helen of Troy.'

Aphrodite finished her speech and put her hand on me. The men with her, Eros, Himeros, the god of sexual desire, and Pothos, the god of sexual longing, joined her and in seconds completed their ritual."

I stopped, put down my beer, and pulled a pendant out from my shirt. It was beautiful, an opal that had fire to it. It gleamed in the setting sunlight. "This appeared on my neck when they were finished. It doesn't come off. My parents tried desparetly to get it off, but it holds my curse. It won't come off till I'm dead. I've tried a few times to take it off, but it sends this pain through me, a pain that is almost unimaginable." I fingered at it. As always, it felt warm, like there was something burning inside it.

"It releases something that I call the Need." I said.

Dean's frown lines increased tenfold. "The Need?"

"It comes in waves, and for a long time I didn't know when it was coming," I replied quietly. "It's what makes men lust after me, what draws them to me. Even now, I know, you guys feel a really weird attraction to me. It doesn't seem sexual, but it can be." I grabbed my beer again, taking a long swig.

"I've found through trial and error that when the Need is on me, it's much easier to keep people away when they can't see me. If I'm hidden, it's not as bad. But if I'm in plain view…"

"So, wait," Sam said. "Have you had, uh, well…"

"No," I told him. I knew exactly what he meant. "My parents raised me as a warrior almost. They taught me how to fight dirty, how to con, how to do everything to prevent anything bad from happening. It's worked so far, but it's been years now and my luck is going to run out. That's why I'm here."

"You think we can lift this curse?" asked Dean.

"You can't lift it, but I did some research. If you kill the ones who cursed you, the curse lifts." I wrung my hands together. "I've searched all over the world but I've never heard of someone actually killing a god. When I heard about you two I had to find you."

We were quiet for a long time. The brothers were sizing me up, trying to decide whether or not they wanted to take a cursed girl under their wings, but then again, how could they not? It was their job to save people after all.

Dean spoke first. "Thea, I just don't really know if we could help you. I mean, one god, maybe. But four?"

"But you killed all those gods when they gathered during the apocalypse didn't you? Mercury and Bauldur, you-"

"No," Sam said. "We didn't do that."

I racked my brain for information. "But what about Osiris and those other lesser pagan dieties?" I was starting to get hysterical. "Guys, you've done it before, and I know that you can do it again, please-"

"Look," Dean cut in. "We can try, but I'm telling you we just can't guarantee it'll happen."

Sam nodded. "Until we know for sure, you can stay with us. Just so you're safe and whatnot."

I relaxed a little bit then. I had heard so much about these guys and how amazing they were. I knew they would keep me safe.


	2. Chapter 2

When Sam went out to get dinner, I grabbed a blanket and a pillow out of the closet in the room and went to the bathroom. I tried to ignore Dean's questions as I set my things down. I bundled the blanket and put it into the bathtub and set the pillow in the curve opposite of the spout.

Dean came in behind me, making me tense slightly. "What are you doing?"

I fluffed the pillow and sat my duffle bag down. "I'm setting up my bed."

He stared at the bathtub. "Huh?"

"If I'm going to be staying in a room with the two best hunters in the world, I'm going to be sleeping in here and locking myself in at night," I told him. "Nowadays I can usually tell a few minutes prior to when the Need will hit, but I can't tell when I'm asleep." I gave him a smile. "A lady has to use precaution."

He smirked at me. "They should, anyway."

I shrugged away his little innuendo and went back into the main room. I flopped down at the table, putting my feet up on the chair next to me. I sighed, closed my eyes and rubbed my scalp to try and massage away the last remains of my stress headache. When I opened my eyes, Dean was staring at me.

"So, uh, don't know if this is your curse talking, but you look really good when you sorta bend like that-"

I threw a wad of paper at him. "Shut it, Winchester. No being within ten feet of me." I grinned at him. "Until after the curse is lifted anyway."

He jerked his head to the side and laughed guiltily. "Well, ah, okay…"

I looked Dean over. He definitely wasn't a bad guy to look at. Close cut brown hair, tanned weathered skin, those green eyes…

I smacked myself internally. Get it together, Thea, I told myself. Anything could happen at any moment. You have to be ready for it!

Sam came in then and I was thankful for the distraction. He gave me my bag of food and I wolfed it down quickly. I hadn't eaten in hours and that burger tasted awesome. It must've been the hope that these guys gave me. I hadn't felt this optimistic in a really long time.

We spent the evening going over books and lore about Aphrodite. I knew almost everything there was to know about the bitch, but the boys had to brush up. They were starting to see as we learned more and more about what a heartless whore this goddess really was. She would curse girls prettier than her, bring whole cities to their knees. Aphrodite was also one of the most feared gods in the Greek pantheon. Love is a powerful weapon and people knew that.

Sam cleared his throat and we both looked at him. Sam looked back to the computer screen. "After reading about some of the omens that give people an idea that Aphrodite's in town, it looks right now like she is in," he squinted at the screen. "New York City."

I groaned. "We're in Indiana! It'll take forever to get there and come up with a plan and-"

"Actually, Thea, we may be able to get some help in this situation." Sam looked at Dean. "We could summon Cas and ask him for some help. Maybe he'll know something that we don't."

Dean looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, we could I guess." He turned to me. "What do you think?"

I hesitated. "Well, Dean, my only thing is that luckily I haven't had to really fend off supernatural beings since the curse started. I fought off a demon once and managed to get out of that by the skin of my teeth, but an angel? If this angel knows where I am when the Need hits then I am royally screwed."

"There's a symbol that Cas could give you. He burned it into our ribs. It makes it so that angels can't just pop in on you."

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. "Okay, yeah. I guess it's okay."

Minutes later, a man in a trench coat poofed into the room, scaring me half to death.

Sam came running out of the bathroom, trying to buckle his pants while Dean laughed at both of us. I threw a bottle at him. "You didn't tell me he just literally pops in!"

The angel called Castiel looked at me, but not with confusion or that look you give people when you don't know them. No, I could tell that he knew me and that he knew what was wrong.

He soon confirmed my suspicions. "You have been cursed."

I looked at the brothers. "He doesn't waste any time, does he?"

"Nah," Dean replied. "That isn't really his thing."

I looked to the angel. "Yes, Castiel. I've been cursed by the goddess Aphrodite."

His eyebrows came together, thinking. "She hasn't surfaced in years. We would've known if she had."

"We?"

"Heaven." He said the name offhandedly, like it didn't really matter or that it was an afterthought.

"Wait, Heaven? Heaven knows when pagans surface or not?" I couldn't believe it. I was giddy at the thought. This could be our chance to get the bitch, and I could finally walk around without being constantly on guard.

"Of course we know," Castiel said. He actually sounded mildly offended. "We are the ones who brought them down and set the rules upon them."

"Well, this is great." Sam grabbed a beer and popped the top. "Cas, you can help us find her and kill her to lift the curse-"

"Sam, I am telling you, Aphrodite has not surfaced once in almost two hundred years." Castiel started to pace. "Surely there is no way that she could slip by unnoticed…"

"Well apparently there is." I stepped forward and drew the pendent out from beneath my shirt. "This can't come off. I looked it up. It's what used to be called the Eye of Aphrodite." I looked down at it, hating it and marveling at it all at once. "Her followers and her prisoners used to wear it so that whatever hold she had on them would stay as long as she wanted."

Castiel grabbed it and turned it over in his palm. He didn't seem to notice how I tensed at his closeness. Dean did, however, and pulled him away. "Cas, personal space."

The angel blinked. "Oh. My apologies."

He looked around at the three of us. "She's right. That's Aphrodite's mark. There isn't anything that can get it off unless Aphrodite wants it off."

"So tell us where she is, Cas. We have a very limited amount of time to work on this!" Dean pointed at me. "She's a time bomb and we don't want to be around when she goes off." When he noticed my glare, he shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry."

"I'm sorry, Dean. I don't know where she is." Castiel did have the decency to look apologetic. "If I hadn't met, uh,"

"Thea."

"Thea. If I hadn't met her, I would still say that Aphrodite is gone, but apparently she isn't." Cas stepped back. "I'm sorry, there isn't much that I can do for you."

"Wait!" Before thinking, I reached out and grabbed his hand. When we both looked at it, I dropped it. "Please, Castiel. Just…just try to put out some feelers or something. My luck is going to run out at some point and I don't want to be stuck with someone terrible for the rest of my life!"

He looked away as he thought briefly and nodded. "Alright. I will see if anyone has heard anything, but I cannot promise you any information."

I nodded. "Thank you."

He moved to leave and I jumped again. "Hold on. Cas?"

The boys all looked at me, wondering what I would say now. "Could you please mark me so that you can't find me?"

They all three looked confused. "What?"

I sighed. "If the Need comes on me and Castiel happens to look over my way, I'll be tied to an angel in a trench coat for the rest of my days, and that's not really something that I want happening."

Castiel reached over without a word and placed his hand on my sternum. I almost asked what he was doing, but then white hot pain shot through my body. I cried out in surprise and slumped to the floor. Sam caught me before I could hit and set me down gently.

"What the fuck, Cas?" he yelled.

"You were both asleep when I marked you, you didn't feel it." Cas replied monotonously. "I'm going now. I'll keep my ears open."

And with that, he was gone.

I spent the next few days with the boys. We would drive a little bit then stop for a while and repeat the process. They were extremely understanding about my condition, but occasionally I could tell that it annoyed Dean not being able to go and do whenever he wanted.

One night, as we were driving back from a diner, I started to feel the warm and fuzzy feeling that I got whenever the Need started.

"Stop the car!" I screamed. The boys jumped and Dean slammed on the breaks. I didn't wait to explain. I jumped out of the car and ran full speed to the motel we were staying at. I opened the door, thankful they hadn't driven ahead, and ran into the bathroom. I closed the door and locked it, panting wildly. I heard the boys come in only moments later.

"Thea, what the hell?" yelled Dean.

"I'm sorry, but you can't see me right now. I'm having trouble."

I could almost see the look of confusion on Dean's face. "What do you mean 'having trouble'?"

"Dean, please, just trust me. Maybe you guys should stay in a different room for tonight."

I heard Sam and Dean talking quietly, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. After a few minutes, I heard someone approach the door.

"Hey Thea," It was Sam. "I think we're gonna stay here for the night, because neither of us feel anything that we can't handle right now, but we're gonna stay away from the bathroom for the night. Actually, until you say we're allowed to see you."

I mulled it over for a minute. "Alright, that's fine." I smirked a little. "I did however notice that there's a strip club down in town if you start feeling real frisky."

I heard them chuckle slightly, but I knew that they were worried. A few minutes later, the main door opened and closed, letting me know that they had left the room. I dead bolted the door and put my bag down in front of it. I sighed and went over to the bathtub where I had set up shop earlier that day. I laid down in it and grabbed a book from my bag.

As I read, I was still tense and nervous. I had heard them leave, but even now I was worried. What if they weren't able to resist? What if the call of the Need was too strong for them? I knew that both of the Winchesters had ridiculously strong wills. I had heard all about how Sam forced Lucifer from his mind just in time to save the world, and Dean was always doing stuff to challenge fate, and what's more, he actually won most of the time. People tried all the time to change their fates, but they usually give up or die trying.

As the night progressed, fatigue pressed on me and soon enough, it felt like the Need was gone. I didn't feel the warmth it gives my body and I didn't feel light headed either. I got up to shut the light off and checked the door to make sure it was locked securely. You could never be too sure.

Once I was satisfied that everything was in place, I settled back down into the tub and pulled a small blanket over me, drifting off into a deep and dreamless


	3. Chapter 3

I was asleep in the bathtub when I heard feet on the floor. My breath hitched in my throat, but I continued to pretend to sleep. I thought it might just be my imagination.

I waited for a moment and then opened my eyes slowly. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Sam standing there, just staring at me.

I sat up quickly, feeling for the knife at my hip. When I felt it, I relaxed just slightly. And then I felt it.

The tingle through my body. The warmth beneath my skin.

Oh, God.

I looked to Sam, trying to see any expression in his face. He was just looking at me with concern.

"Thea, I heard you whimpering in here," he said. "I just was making sure you were okay."

I stood up slowly. "Yeah, Sam. I'm fine. Just a bad dream or something."

He nodded and looked down, leaving the bathroom.

As soon as he left, I started to shake, my body releasing the breath I didn't realize I had been holding. I listened carefully, waiting to hear the spring of his bed. Once I heard it, I started grabbing up my things and stuffing them into my bag. I couldn't be here while the Need was on me, especially not when Sam had just seen me. It must've come back while I was sleeping.

'Maybe he wasn't affected by it,' I thought as I shoved things into my duffle.

I threw on my jacket and shoes, pulling the bag over my shoulder. I walked out the door quietly, moving slowly but silently through the room. I paused to look at Sam and Dean sleeping. Sam's back was to me, but I could see Dean plain as day. He looked so much more personable when he was asleep.

I was almost to the door when I was grabbed from behind, the knife at my hip ripped out of the sheath and thrown away from me. I struggled and tried to scream, but I wasn't able to. Sam's hand came down over my mouth, ignoring my bites to it. After everything we had talked about over the past few days, he knew almost everything that I would try to do and countered me at every point.

I was so stupid to tell them everything.

He pulled my head back to his shoulder, exposing my throat and making it so I couldn't head butt him. There was no way to elbow him or punch or kick. He had me in a lock that I wouldn't be able to get out of unless he wanted me out.

Fear spread cold through my body. I wondered how he had even gotten in. I locked the door myself and he wouldn't have come near it. It must've been tampered with.

It wouldn't help me now. I felt his breath on my neck, the brush of his lips on my ear. His grip was tight, but not crushing. I bit down on the inside of my cheek. My only option was to struggle enough to wake Dean up. If I was especially lucky, they would end up fighting each other to get to me first. If I wasn't lucky…well, I didn't want to think about that.

I started flailing wildly, kicking my feet out and my limbs. I don't think that Sam had been prepared for such a move, because his grip slipped and I flew headfirst into the door, banging my head up against it, a loud thud reverberating through the room.

I heard Dean jump up. "Sam?"

Sam's hands were on me before I could move. There were stars blooming in my eyes, my head smarting terribly from where it had hit. I cried out and tried to punch Sam, but he had me face down on the floor with my hands pinned beside me quickly. He straddled my hips, effectively holding me down.

"Look who was trying to leave, Dean," said Sam. He wasn't even breathless from our encounter.

I turned my head to squint up at Dean, who was now standing over the both of us. He had the glazed over look already, but he also had that mischievous glint in his eyes that I had seen once or twice. I struggled wildly, but Sam pushed my hands down into the floor harder, making sharp pains shoot up my arms.

"Thea, Thea, Thea," Sam cooed in my ear. "Where would you go without us to protect you?" He was now sliding his hands up the sleeves of my jacket, his hands warm on my skin.

"Sam, you don't want to do this," I said, muffled by the floor. "This isn't you talking, this is the Need you're feeling!"

Dean walked around me to where I couldn't see him. I tried to turn and look, but Sam's hand came up and knotted into my hair, lifting it up.

"You're right, Thea, I do need you." He lightly kissed the back of my neck, trailing them down to the collar of my jacket. I felt my boots being taken off of me, slowly. Dean was down at my feet.

"I've wanted you since I saw you," Sam continued. "I've dreamed of how your body would feel beneath mine. How you would writhe and beg for more." His hand got tighter in my hair, bringing tears to my eyes. "I bet Dean's been feeling the same thing. I guess we're gonna find out tonight, aren't we Thea?"

When he said that, I struggled madly. I had to get away. I couldn't kill them, hell, I couldn't even beat them in a fight. Maybe one, but definitely not the two of them. They're the best hunters in the world, and compared to them, I'm amateur at best. I couldn't let this happen though. I needed them to help me, but I wouldn't let this happen!

Sam jerked me up by my arms, dragging me into a standing position. When I looked up, Dean was in front of me. Inches away. He grabbed my hips and pulled them to his, grinding himself into me. Sam's arm went around my shoulders, the crook of his elbow almost around my throat. I felt them both against me, rock hard bodies of sinewy muscle honed by years of tangling with supernatural creatures and humans both.

I prayed they would rip each other apart.

I tried to think myself to a different place. Back to the park I used to go to as a kid with my dad, to the bakery I grew up in. None of it did any good. Their mouths were hot and demanding. I still struggled, but everywhere I tried to bring my arms, they countered me. Four hands against two was an unfair advantage.

I brought my heel down as hard as I could on Sam's bare toes, putting all of my rage into it.

He yelped and threw me away from him, making me stumble. It had surprised Dean enough to where he hadn't even tried to catch me. I was quick and bolted for the bathroom, slamming the door just in time to see Dean rushing at it. I threw the lock just as his weight crashed into it, making the door groan on its hinges.

"Don't make me bust down this door, Thea." Dean warned me through the door. "You won't like it if I have to come get you."

I looked around wildly for something to use as a weapon. There was no window in the bathroom, lovely. Why had I not checked that before?

Dean pounded on the door again, making me thud against it. I was running out of time. He would put on his boots, and when that happened, the door would come crashing down.

I ran and grabbed onto the towel rack, trying to pull it off the wall. It wouldn't budge. A sob escaped my throat as Dean kicked the door, wood splintering out from it. It wouldn't hold against another one.

I looked around and saw what could be my saving grace: the top on the toilet.

I grabbed it and jumped behind the door just as it came crashing in, dust obscuring vision momentarily. I saw his figure right in front of me and didn't hesitate to bring the lid down as hard as I could between his shoulder blades. He fell almost immediately and I turned and ran.

I didn't get far. Sam intercepted me and threw me on the bed, falling on top of me. I threw my head back and heard a satisfying crack against his forehead. I was able to shrug him off of me, shrugging off my jacket that he held in his hand. I scrambled for my knife that laid in the dark corner of the room, almost tripping over myself in the process.

I was so close, but almost as soon as I touched the handle, a hand fell on my shoulder, wrenching me back onto the bed. I bent backward painfully, my legs caught under me.

I looked up into Dean's blazing green eyes. They shined bright with anger and lust.

"You hit me pretty good back there. I've gotta give it you, people usually don't get one over on me."

"What can I say," I growled, struggling away from him. "Lust makes people stupider than usual."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Sammy, come over here and help me out, would you!"

They shifted quickly, Dean straddling my bottom half while Sam cradled the top in his, pinning my arms to my side. They had me at such a weird angle, I could barely move my legs. They really had me this time. Tears brimmed again in my eyes. I closed them and looked away, not wanting to watch anything happen.

I felt Dean's fingers brush my cheek, turning my face back to his. He caught my eyes with his and leaned in close. It shocked me the level of tenderness that they held in them. For a guy who had just wrestled me onto the bed, he looked like he actually cared.

"Relax, Thea," he said softly. "Relax. We want to make you feel good, take you places you've never been before."

The tears were flowing freely now. "Dean, please," I whispered. "Don't do this. You'll be tied to me for the rest of your life. You don't want that." A sob broke from me. "I don't want that."

He shushed me in what could've been soothing, but it wasn't. "Be quiet now, Thea. Just be quiet and enjoy the ride."

He didn't kiss me directly on the mouth. He knew that if he did, a lip would come off of him. He kissed down my jaw line, down to my throat to where my shirt stopped him from going anywhere else. He sat up for a moment and looked down at me, assessing the situation.

He smirked and looked at Sam. "Sammy, could yo-"

"Way ahead of you, Dean."

Sam produced a small knife and handed it to Dean. I tried to wiggle away, but as it got closer I was afraid of it actually cutting me. I held perfectly still as Dean literally cut my shirt off of me. He pulled the strips off, leaving behind just my bra. He smirked again and cut of the bra. I cried out as he pulled it away, leaving me exposed to him.

He looked me in the eye as he lowered his head to my breast and took it into his mouth. I tried to move away, but Sam held me firmly in place. Dean's tongue danced over my chest, leaving a trail of fire. I felt like I was going to wretch. I had gone for years now without getting to this and these bastards had been able to get me so easily, it was embarrassing. Now they would rape me mercilessly and hate themselves after the Need wore off. These guys had done a lot of bad things, but they had never been rapists.

Dean traveled lower still, kissing down my belly, his fingers gripping the waistband of my jeans. I tried to buck him off, but his hands were strong and held me easily.

As he took my jeans off slowly, I tried to look at Sam, who had pinned my arms under his legs, leaving his hands free. He was rubbing his hands all over my midsection, his hands trying to coax me into relaxation. He kissed the sides of my neck, biting and sucking gently. I pulled my head away so that he would look into my eyes.

"Please, Sam," I said, imploring him with my eyes. "Don't do this. You're strong, you fought the Devil out of your mind. You _won_. Don't let something this small get you. You couldn't live with yourself if you do this to me!"

He brought his hand up my neck and to my jaw slowly, letting me feel how easily he could kill me if he wanted. He held my jaw closed as he crushed his lips to mine, making it so I couldn't even open my mouth. He moved his mouth over mind sensuously, his hand keeping my mouth closed while the other squeezed one of my breasts.

A cold breeze covered quickly by warm body heat brought me back to the reality that I was facing. Dean fell between my newly exposed legs, wrapping his arms around my thighs.

I started to struggle harder than ever, begging them to stop what they were doing. Sam gripped me tighter and continued his assault on my upper half.

I looked up at the ceiling, silently pleading with Aphrodite to lift her curse, but I knew she was just smirking, enjoying what was happening to me.

The first stroke of Dean's tongue nearly shocked me out of my wits. He started licking and sucking on me, and I don't know what broke in me.

I just started to scream.

I screamed as if I was being murdered, a loud sharp scream that no one could take for being pleasure. Sam silenced it quickly, placing a paw over my mouth. I tried to squeeze Dean's head between my legs, in the desperate hope of maybe suffocating him, but he bit down on the inside of my thigh, biting me the harder I tried to shut my legs.

I got to the point where I couldn't take the bite anymore and relaxed my legs. He gave me one last long lick before kissing his way back up me.

He placed himself between my legs, letting me feel how hard he was. He ran his hands up my body to cradle my face in his hands. He got as close as he could without me being able to bite.

"I'm going to make you scream with pleasure, Thea," he whispered against my lips.

I felt him against my opening, searching. "Dean, stop!" I cried. "Stop it, ple-"

I screamed as he shoved himself in, breaking past any resistance that there was between me and him. I just started to sob as he moved inside.

_This can't be happening, _I thought. _Please, God, just let this be a nightmare!_

But it was happening. The pain of it started to go numb after a little while. Dean was panting above me, running his hands all over my body. Sam was breathing heavily from behind, his hand stroking me from the top. I just went limp. There was no point in fighting anymore. Everything that I had fought for was gone now. I lost everything.

I don't know how long it took. It was probably only minutes but it seemed like hours until Dean finished. He groaned into my neck, thrusting a few more times and kissing my ear before pulling out of me.

He rolled over beside me and Sam crawled out from behind. All I could do was shake my head. One was bad enough, but two?

I tried to close myself, but Sam was there before I could. He wasted no time. I laid there quietly while he rutted into me, moaning into my ear. Dean had pulled me closer to him and was just running his hands all over my chest and face, slowly and almost lovingly. It was as if he couldn't get enough.

Sam finished faster than Dean and collapsed on top of me. He kissed the corner of my mouth before taking a place on the opposite side of me.

He laid his head on my belly while Dean rested his chin on top of my head. I laid there flat on my back, pain ebbing through my body as the Winchester brothers fell asleep, as content as they had been in a very long time.


	4. Chapter 4

Dean woke up first.

Sunlight was pouring through the curtains, lighting the room in a bluish tint. It took him a moment to realize where he was and that he…wasn't clothed?

He looked down and nearly jumped out of his skin. Sam was barely a foot away from him, also naked, sleeping and closer to Dean's junk than he had ever been in his life.

Dean almost punched Sam in the head before he noticed the blood.

There were little blood stains all around him, but the one that was most prominent was the bigger stain in between him and Sam.

Oh, God.

Dean sat up slowly. He felt as if something was twisting his heart and his gut. Terror was taking hold of him. He surveyed the room.

It looked as if a tornado had moved through. The other bed was almost off the base, the table and chairs were strewn haphazardly all over. Papers, books, everything was just a wreck.

He started noticing pain in him, especially between his shoulders. He looked down at his arm and saw scratches all over them, as if…

Someone had tried to get away.

Thea.

He looked around for her, the name sending a weird need for her. A need to be around her, to know where she was.

He got up, pain now throbbing through his body, but he ignored it. After pulling on a pair of jeans, he walked over to where the bathroom door was open halfway. He pushed it open, looked around, and fell back with a cry.

Thea was laying on the floor naked, covered in bruises, teeth marks, and scratches. Her long hair was tangled and flung around her. He saw dried blood on an exposed thigh, along with a nasty looking bite mark.

Dean sank to his knees. We did this, he thought. We did this to Thea. She trusted us and we hurt her…

He vaguely heard Sam stir behind him and say his name, but he couldn't form words. He couldn't have even passed them through the lump that had formed in his throat anyway. Tears blurred his vision. He couldn't grasp it. He didn't even remember.

"Dean, what is it.."

Sam stopped short, seeing exactly what Dean was seeing. Sam looked down at his brother, shaking his head. "No. No, she didn't…we didn't…"

"Yeah, Sammy," Dean whispered. "I think we did."

Sam started to cry in a way Dean hadn't seen in a long time. He hadn't cried that much even when Bobby died. Dean crawled on the floor towards Thea, whose breathing was shallow and quiet. He smoothed the hair out of her face, wincing at the bruises on her face. Her lips were swollen and she had a nasty bump on her head.

Her eyes fluttered open to see him looking at her. They were red and swollen from crying. Even then, she still looked unbelievably beautiful to him.

"Dean," she whispered.

"Shh," he said, trying to find something to help her. "It's okay, Thea. I'm so sorry Thea, I'm so sorry…"

He stood up and grabbed a washcloth that had fallen under the floor. He turned on the faucet and ran it under warm water, his hands shaking, his eyes blurry.

He fell back onto his knees and gingerly lifted her head so that she was propped up. He looked at Sam, who was sitting with his head between his knees.

"Sam!" he said harshly. "Go get a blanket or something, don't just sit there!"

Sam shot up, needing something to do. He grabbed a sheet from the mattress that was almost on the floor and brought it back to them. He held it out, turned away from Dean and Thea. He couldn't bear to look at them.

Dean covered Thea and started to gently wipe away the blood on her face.

She lifted her gaze to meet his. "Dean, you're crying." she whispered.

He tried to laugh but nothing came out. "I should be. I should go put a bullet in my head now. Sam's too." His lip trembled and his hand shook as he started to wipe off her neck. Bite marks and hickies covered it, although there wasn't really any blood there.

"Most of the blood isn't mine," she rasped. "It's mostly yours and Sam's. Just so you know."

"Dean," Sam stood over them. "What do we do? Do we call an ambulance? Turn ourselves in?"

Thea's hand touched Dean's. "No hospitals. Nothing." She closed her eyes and a tear leaked from beneath the lid. "What's done is done."

He wiped the tear away with a brush of his thumb. He didn't know what to say. What does someone say after something like this? Hey, uh, sorry about the whole raping you thing. We weren't really aware of our actions, so, hey! Let's just pretend it never happened, yeah?

Finally, he found his voice. "I'm gonna get you washed up, okay Thea?"

She just nodded. Dean jerked his head to the large bathtub behind him, telling Sam to turn it on. Sam moved robotically, turning the knobs and testing the water to be sure that it wasn't too hot or cold. He found a bar of bubble bath and threw it in, watching the suds grow.

When the tub was full, Dean picked her up and set her in carefully. She hissed in pain as the hot water covered her cuts and bruises, but soon she relaxed, sinking lower into the water. Her hair fanned out in front of her, shielding her body from the view of the boys. She leaned her head back against the wall, a heavy sigh escaping her.

She turned and looked at them. "I know how you guys are feeling right now," she said softly.

"Yeah, I doubt that." Dean replied shortly, not looking at her.

"Oh, really?" Anger was evident in her voice. "Guess what, Dean, I lived it. You don't remember any of it, but I do! I remember the fear and the pain," her voice caught in her throat and made her pause for a moment. "And I remember thinking about how much you would both hate yourselves for it."

"You're right," he said. "We do hate ourselves. We'll be turning ourselves in as soon as we know you're okay."

"No, Dean."

"Why not!"

"Because I feel it, okay?" She looked down and fingered at her hair.

Dean's throat felt tight. "Feel what?"

"Don't be stupid, Dean. I have no patience for it."

She closed her eyes and all of a sudden, she sank below the water.


	5. Chapter 5

Everything was quiet. My hair floated around me and in the silence of the water, I wished I could just stay there for forever.

I didn't want to face Sam and Dean. I was trying so hard to not hate them, to not look at them with the disgust I felt. Especially at Sam. I knew that I was tied to Dean and that made me feel close to him, like I needed him to be around me. I wanted to touch him, soothe the hatred and rage that he felt against himself and his brother.

I didn't want to do this. Maybe it would've been easier if it was some dirt bag who was able to overpower me, someone who wouldn't care what happened to me. Instead, I now have to deal with not only my rape in general, but the fact that the boys who did it will be brooding for the rest of my life.

I reemerged from the water, wiping it from my eyes. I looked back at them, my anger finally snapping.

"Get out! Both of you, now!" I yelled, throwing water at them.

Sam wasted no time, but Dean stayed put.

"I'm not leaving you," he said to me. The tears had dried, replaced by a sadness that was almost worse than tears.

I had to look away. "Dean, please, I can't stand it when you look at me like that. Just stop. You act like you're the one who…" I drifted off, unable to finish.

That was all it took. Dean stormed off, leaving me behind.

I waited until the water was cold and the suds were gone before I moved. Finally, I stood up and unplugged the drain, pulling the curtain around and turning on the shower. I washed myself slowly, ignoring the dull ache that invaded my bones. I tried to think about what would happen now. Dean and I couldn't be apart, in every sense of the word. We would die if we were away for too long.

This is such bullshit.

I finally finished, grabbed a towel from the ground and dried off. My bag was back in the bathroom and I wondered how it had gotten back there. Maybe I had ended up grabbing it when I ran back in and didn't even realize it. That or Dean had brought it back in. Either way, I grabbed a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt and changed quickly, grabbed my hairbrush and walked back out into the room.

Part of me was surprised to see that the boys were still there. They had cleaned up the room and fully dressed themselves. They were also in the process of getting really drunk.

Beer bottles and fifths of random alcohols were scattered around where they had thrown them. Sam was laying on the bed that hadn't been used, eyes closed. I saw that he had a couple of small scratches on his face where I had gotten him the night before. He was tense, everything in his body obviously screaming to get out of there. Dean was sitting with his back to me, taking a long swig of whiskey.

For whatever reason, seeing the alcohol pissed me off. I stormed up behind him, grabbed the bottle out of his hands, and threw it at the wall.

They jumped up, surprised and ready for a fight. When they saw that it was just me, they tensed up even more.

"Oh stop it, both of you," I sneered, sitting down on the loveseat. I started to brush my hair. "We have work to do and I can't have the both of you drunk."

"Look," said Dean. "I don't know how you are handling this as well as you are, but you can't pretend that what happened didn't happen! You can't just treat us like we didn't hurt you!"

I looked at him coldly. "Do you see me pretending like I'm alright, Dean?" My voice was rising. "Do you really think that I feel that way? I'm trying to keep it together so that I can get rid of this curse! You know why? Because I feel it, Dean."

He looked at me, shocked. I turned away. "I know you feel it. You don't think I feel it too? The need to be around you, the want for you to touch me?" A tear fell down my cheek and I wiped it away angrily. "A small part of me doesn't even want to get rid of the feeling. I just want to make you feel better and to be alright. I want you to hold me and tell me everything will be well. But I know it's not real! I know that it's this fucking curse talking, and I have to get rid of it, Dean. I can't feel this way for the rest of my life."

His throat was working like he wanted to say something, anything, to make me think it wasn't true but we couldn't lie to each other now. We saw through it easily, and it was maddening to both of us. We had built ourselves on lies and depended on people not being able to see them.

Dean finally found his voice. "What I don't understand is why Sam doesn't feel the same way. Why isn't he tied the same way? Did he not…you know."

I pushed down my feeling of nausea. "No, he did. He just didn't do it…first."

Sam got up without a word and walked out of the room. He grabbed nothing, just slammed the door. Dean didn't try to stop him.

"Shouldn't you make sure he isn't gonna hurt himself?" I asked, running the brush through my hair.

"Nah," Dean replied. "He needs time alone. I'd love to say he'll get over it one day, but I know he won't." He paused for a moment. "I don't think I will either.

We sat in silence for a while, neither of us sure what to say.

After a while, I stood up and walked out of the room, ignoring Dean's protests. I left my bag in the room, hopefully making Dean see that I wasn't leaving for a long time. I just needed fresh air.

I walked down the street, letting the cool breeze sink into my bones. It felt nice, with the sun on my face and the smell of grass filling my nose. I took comfort in all of the things surrounding me, the trees on my right and the pavement beneath my feet.

I looked to my right into the little woods. I went down a path that had obviously been walked multiple times, taking in the sights around me. The leaves were the color of fire in the middle of this month and were starting to fall. This time of the year had always been so bittersweet for me. My mother used to call it the time of bella muerte, beautiful death. Everything was dying, but you would never think so because it's all so beautiful.

I walked farther into the woods, listening to the rustle of the breeze go through the trees. Walking was making the ache start to leave my bones, but the pain between my legs lingered. I figured that it would take a while for that to get better. Maybe I would google it later.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear someone come up behind me.

"Thea."

I jumped, spinning around with my fists up ready to fight. What I saw instead of a stranger was the angel Castiel.

"Cas." I said, lowering my hands.

He looked me up and down, taking in the bruises and scratches. "You've been hurt."

I gave a humorless laugh. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

His eyes narrowed in confusion. "I don't sense what I did in you before, Thea. What happened?"

I turned and started walking back to the motel. I heard Cas fall into step behind me. I hesitated for a few moments. "I lost it."

He stopped short, forcing me to turn. "What are you talking about?"

I sighed. "Dean took it away. Him and Sam, last night."

Cas looked at me, the epitome of seriousness. "You no longer have your virginity." He didn't ask.

I looked away uncomfortably, the urge to be close to Dean getting strong again. I wanted to go back to him. "No."

"Thea, what happened?"

"What do you think happened, genius?" I snapped. "I went to sleep last night in the tub. I locked the door myself, everything was in place. The next thing I know, I wake up and Sam is standing over me. I felt the Need going through me. They overpowered me."

I started walking again, faster this time. An ache was beginning to form in my chest, strong enough to where I wanted something to make the pain go away. I also didn't want to play 20 Questions with a fallen angel anymore.

Thankfully, Castiel remained silent for a while. We walked back to the motel, but when I opened the door, I didn't seen Dean.

The place looked exactly the same as it did before I left, with my bag in place and everything. I knew that when I saw Dean's keys on the table that he hadn't left, so that was something at least. But where did he go?

"Cas? Where's Dean?"

"I'm not sure," the angel replied, taking in every detail of the room. "Perhaps he just slipped out for a while."

The pain in my chest was starting to become unbearable. I put my hand to it. "Where ever he is, I hope he comes back soon."


	6. Chapter 6

Dean had gone out in search of Sam.

When Sam hadn't returned in an hour, he started to worry. He knew his little brother pretty well and knew that something like this wasn't going to go very well for him.

He found Sam in a park two miles down the road from their motel. He was sitting on a bench, turned away from the kids, arms across his chest. He had his brooding face on, making Dean roll his eyes.

"Heya, Sam." he said, taking a seat by him.

"Don't, Dean," Sam warned. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say."

Dean nodded. "I'm not saying anything, Sam. Only that we need to find Aphrodite and her little posse and gank 'em before anything worse happens."

"What could be worse than what we did, Dean?" Sam shook his head. "We raped her, beat her. We did everything that we told her we wouldn't do."

"Sam, I know. Dammit, I know, but if we ever want to even try to make it up to her, we have to find Aphrodite and kill her to hopefully break Thea of her curse."

"But what if we can't?" Sam said it so quietly, Dean almost couldn't catch it.

"What?"

"What if," he said louder, "we can't break it because it already has been enforced?"

That thought hadn't really occurred to Dean. He just intended to find as many of that bitch's followers as he could and make them bleed. He hadn't thought that there was a possibility of her not getting out of her curse.

He rubbed at his chest as a dull ache began to blossom in it. He looked at his watch. It had been almost two hours since he had seen Thea and now it was starting to get to him.

Sam had kept talking. "We can definitely try, but I just don't know how it'll all work out."

Dean cleared his throat. "We gotta do something, Sammy. To try and make it up to her."

Sam stared at the ground. "Yeah, you're right."

They were quiet for a minute before Sam spoke again. "Have you started to remember yet?"

Dean nodded curtly. "Yeah, a little."

Same tried to swallow the lump in his throat. "I don't know how to even look her in the face. I feel like she'll hate me for the rest of eternity. I deserve it too. I just…" he sighed. "I just hope we can break her curse."

"Yeah, me too, Sam. Me too."

They got up and walked back to the motel to find Cas and Thea in the room. Thea had fallen asleep, curled up into fetal position looking like she was in pain. Cas sat motionless, staring off into nothing, but he knew the exact moment the Winchesters arrived.

"Sam, Dean," he said in greeting.

"Hey, Cas." They replied quietly, not wanting to wake the sleeping girl. Since they had come in she appeared to have relaxed a little. Dean had relaxed too, the weight coming off of his chest.

"I was able to make her sleep," said the angel. "She was having tremendous pain in her chest area, and I could sense her physical exhaustion. Some of it seems to have gone away in the small time that you've been back."

Castiel looked at him, his eyes intense. "You feel it too, don't you Dean?"

Dean blinked in surprise. "How'd you-"

"It radiates from the two of you. This…energy." He hesitated. "It's the same thing as soul mates have, except yours is much stronger. It also is a different color. Gold, instead of white."

"Wait, soul mates?"

"Yes. When two soul mates come in contact, there's a burst of energy. It's usually the cherubim's arrow piercing them, making them fall in love with each other. It stays there for the rest of their lives and starts to fade away once one of the other dies."

"It must be because Aphrodite's magic is more powerful," said Dean, running his hands through his hair. He wanted a drink. Actually, he wanted multiple drinks.

"The cherubim are a thousand times more powerful than the pagan," replied Cas. "There is no way that that is just her magic."

"She said that Aphrodite and her minions cursed her all together. It was her, Eros and two other minor love gods. I forget their names."

Cas's eyebrows came together. "This isn't good, Dean. You didn't tell me that it was all four of them!"

"I didn't think it mattered! The only thing I wanted to do was get her curse lifted before…this happened." Dean muttered. He went over to the bottle of whiskey he hadn't gotten to finish and poured it into a glass. He sipped on it, looking over at the sleeping girl on the bed. He felt a strange feeling, like he would do anything for her, that he couldn't imagine being away from her.

"Dean."

He looked up to see Cas closer. Sam was with him. "What if this is a pairing between both cherubim and Aphrodite's work?"

"What do you mean?"

Sam spoke this time. "This is a really weird theory, but it makes a little more sense. Remember when Thea had said that the whole point of Aphrodite's curse was to make her miserable? It was supposed to tie her to someone she hated or someone who was really bad to her, but it didn't."

"It's because she was with the two of us, Sam. She couldn't have gotten out if she had tried."

"Yeah, but somehow, she always managed to get away from others. What if," he paused, searching for the right words. "What if you guys were actually supposed to have this happen?"

Dean opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out. He clamped his mouth shut and walked out the door. Sam had seen the absolute fury on his brother's face. He sighed and followed him out the door.

"Dean, Dean wait!"

"No!" he yelled. "How dare you, Sam, how fucking dare you!"

"Calm down, Dean you have to think rationally right now."

Cas had followed them outside. "Sam is right. You must keep a level head right now."

"After he just told me that it was fate that I rape that innocent girl in there! Yeah, I'm going to stay completely fucking calm!"

Dean paced around the parking lot, trying to calm down but he couldn't. How could Sam ever say something like that?

"Look, Dean, I'm just trying to throw out ideas here. Maybe it was supposed-"

Dean whirled on his brother, grabbed the lapels of his jacket, and threw him up against the wall. "How many times have we spit in the face of so called fate, Sam? Do you really think that this sort of thing starts to work out now?"

Sam grabbed his brother's hands and threw him away. "Don't even start on me, Dean!" he yelled back. "I'm just trying to make sense of this whole fucking thing!"

"Guys?" The boys had been ready to go after each other when they heard Thea's tired voice. "What's going on?"

They relaxed slightly, not wanting to upset her further. Dean's gut clenched at the sight of her, as if he was seeing her for the first time.

Her eyelids drooped from just having woken up, shielding those beautiful cerculean blue-green eyes, framed by long, naturally curled eye lashes. Her complection, slightly tanned, was flushed from the cool breeze that graced her skin and lifted her wavy deep chestnut hair off of her shoulders. Her body was small and lush, something that Dean didn't usually go for. He liked his women thin and busty, but Thea had curve in every right area.

He flushed when he thought about how soft she was and remembered how he knew. He tramped down his feelings and walked towards the Impala. "I've gotta go."

Her eyes snapped open and she leaned forward. "Why?"

His jaw clenched. "I just can't be here right now."

He got into the car and turned it on, ready to roll out of the parking lot when the door opened and Thea climbed in. "Dean, please don't go."

He stared at her, surprised that she had gotten into his car with him. "Why?" was all he could say.

She touched her tongue to her full bottom lip, a nervous reaction but one of the sweetest and sexiest things that Dean had ever seen in his life. He had to restrain himself from either closing the distance between them and kissing her senseless or pushing her out the door.

"It just…it hurt real bad when you weren't around." she whispered. "I'm not sure if it was as strong for you, but when I didn't see you for those few hours, my chest felt like it was caving in." she paused. "God, that's so cliché."

A humorless smile touched his mouth. "Yeah, that is pretty cliché."

She looked him dead in the eye, making sure that he could look nowhere but her. "Dean, I know you don't like this, but I'm telling you. If you or I keep running away and not coming back to each other, this curse will kill us. I don't want to die because you're too stubborn to stay in the same vicinity as I am."

He looked straight back at her, his piercing green eyes burning into her. "Thea, I don't know if you really get how I'm feeling right now. All I want to do is be around you and…" he hesitated. "And make you see stars. I want to protect you, and care for you, and always be around you, and that scared the living hell out of me."

She laid her hand over his, a small gesture that almost made him lose control. "Dean, please. Just stay. Once we get all of this figured out, you never have to see me again." She smiled weakly at him. "Please come back inside?"

No! his mind screamed at him as he opened the car door. You'll just keep hurting her! All you know is pain and death!

But suddenly, with this beautiful woman smiling at him, after every god awful thing that he had done to her, his past didn't seem to matter quite as much.


	7. Chapter 7

We walked back into the room where Sam and Castiel were sitting. Sam looked tense and uncomfortable and Cas looked…well, just like Cas.

"Hey guys," I said quietly in greeting.

They nodded to me, Sam not looking at me and Castiel looked to Dean. He opened his mouth to speak, but Dean cut him off.

"Don't, Cas. I don't want to hear anything from you unless it's about that bitch of a goddess."

Cas frowned. "But Dean, I-"

"Cas!"

They stared at each other for a moment before Cas turned his eyes away. Without saying another word to us, he vanished, leaving me with the Winchesters alone.

I went to sit down on a chair, but stopped mid-way. I was achy all over, but my lady bits hurt like hell. Shit, my entire bottom half hurt. I had finger print bruises all over my hips, little scratches all over the place, and a really nasty bite mark that I was hoping wouldn't get infected.

I was hoping that the boys wouldn't notice or say anything, but I saw the look in their eyes that they did. I tried to play it off by stretching my arms and yawning, but part of me didn't care. Actually, a pretty large part didn't care. They had done this to me. This wasn't my fault.

_But it wasn't theirs either._

I pushed that annoying voice out of my head, annoyed that it would even suggest that it was okay. I was trying so hard to be good to them, but I was still so bitter about everything that had happened that I couldn't think on it long.

We all sat there awkwardly for a while before Sam announced that he was going out to get dinner and drinks. He didn't ask us what we wanted. I knew that he wanted to be gone and I couldn't blame him. I wouldn't want to be around either.

I tried to ignore the tension left in the room by drawing on a sketch pad that I had in my bag. I drew mindlessly, letting my thoughts drift. It wasn't until the bed sank beside me that my reverie broke.

"Hey," said Dean. "That's me!"

I looked closely at the drawing and saw that it was in fact Dean. To someone just peering at the page, it was just some guy sitting on his car looking out at the landscape, but the tell-tale sign was the car. I think I have a thing for that damned Impala.

"So it is," I murmured. "I think I have a crush on your car."

"Can't blame you," he replied. "If you didn't, I'd think that there was something seriously wrong with you."

I smiled a little, but before I could stop them, the words came spilling out of my mouth. "I can't stay in this room, Dean."

He stared at me, confusion all over his face. "Huh?"

"This room…and Sam." His face tightened at the mention of his brother and I felt my throat swell. "I'm just having a _really _hard time being around Sam right now."

When he still didn't say anything, I started to ramble. "You and me have this connection now and I know you still are upset, I mean, I am too, but Sam doesn't have any special connection to me. Really, all I feel right now about Sam is pissed off and hurt. He's the one who saw the bathroom door was open and went to go see what was wrong."

"He was just trying to make sure that you were okay!"

"He shouldn't have gone in there!" I yelled. "I told you guys that until I gave you the go ahead, you were not to come near that door, but he did it anyway. And now look where we are! Hating each other and yet feeling this pull that makes us want to jump on each other!"

It was true. The more upset I had gotten, the closer Dean and I came together. It was like a magnetic force pulling us inexplicably together. Our eyes locked as we came towards each other, falling under some sort of spell that neither of us could break.

Just as Dean's hand came to cradle my face, the door opened, Sam carrying a large pizza and three six packs of beer. It was the slap in the face we needed and we jumped away from each other, as if we burned each other with our presence.

I turned away, mumbling something about the car and walked out the door, leaving a confused Sam in my wake.

I opened the backseat door to the Impala and climbed in, slamming and locking it behind me. I leaned across the front seats and locked the two doors so I could be by myself. After I cracked the windows for a breeze, I took a jacket off the floor, rolled it up, and put it behind me, leaning back on it.

I needed to know what to do. I felt like an idiot. What kind of person lets emotions lead them so haphazardly? Crazy people, that's who! I couldn't keep letting this happen. I knew it wasn't fair to be so hot and cold with anyone, let alone Dean. If I was going to be anything, I should be completely cold. Right?

As I was thinking about what to do, a thought hit me. I grasped the pendent that I had been toying with and noticed that it no longer felt warm. If anything, it felt like any other piece of jewelry. What would happen if I took it off of me? I assumed nothing since it seemed so trivial, but at the same time, it was what bound me to the curse. Now that the curse had been fulfilled, could the pendent go?

I sat up and reached around to the clasp, touching it between my finger tips. I started to sweat slightly, suddenly very nervous. I had no idea what would happen if I took this off. Is it really something that I want to risk?

You know what? Yes, yes it is.

I held down the clasp and pulled with all my strength. Turns out, I didn't really need to. It came apart like a regular necklace, falling into my lap.

Suddenly, a presence filled the car, bright gold light emanating from every area. I covered my eyes, hoping that it wouldn't blind me.

When it final faded away, sitting next to me in the backseat was the most beautiful man that I had ever seen.

He was lithe but very muscular, with long arms and large hands. He had hands that should be used to play the piano. His face was chiseled from marble, with long wide cheek bones and thin pouty lips. His eyes were captivating, a bright light brown framed by thick black eyelashes. His hair was thick, black and curly, hanging down to his ears. He was perfection.

And yet he terrified me. I opened my mouth to scream but he leaned forward quickly, clamping a hand down on my mouth. I tried to get away but ended up cornered in the seat, leaning down trying to bring my knees up to separate us but he was having none of it. The stranger placed himself between my legs, leaning down towards me.

He was so close to me that the only place I could look was his eyes. They burned with intensity, and soon they were swimming before me in the tears that had taken place in them.

_Please don't hurt me_ I wanted to beg. _This can't happen to me again, please don't do this!_

"Relax," he whispered. "I must speak to you, and I cannot do so if you aren't paying close attention."

I tried to ignore the way his words caressed me, sending shivers across my skin. I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again, nodding at him.

He leaned away from me, taking his hand and his body heat with him. He stared at me intently. "Do you know who I am?"

"Is that seriously your first question?"

He blinked. "You would not remember me, I suppose…"

"Dude, skip the bullshit and tell me who you are before I-"

"Before you what?" he interrupted. "Before you scream? Before you fight me off? Just like you did with those boys last night I assume."

My jaw dropped. How did he know that?

He smirked at my confusion. "Allow me to reintroduce myself, young Thea. My name is Pothos, and I am the god of sexual desire and longing."

I couldn't process this. He realized that and kept talking. "You must understand, I'm coming to you because you need to hear something and I must tell you-"

I flew across the seat at him, raining down as many blows as I could land. "_How dare you come here, you fucking bastard!" _ I screamed at him. "_How dare you show your pathetic fucking face anywhere near me!"_

After a moment of struggle, he had managed to turn me so that I was facing forward, his arms wrapped around me like snakes, holding my own arms to my chest so that I couldn't hit or claw at him anymore. "Stop this, Thea," he hissed at me. "I don't have much time."

"What could you possibly have to say to me, you son of a bitch?" I asked coldly, trying to get out of his grip. It just made him tighten.

"I couldn't come to you until you took the eye off," he replied. "But you must know something, and it is imperative that you know this."

"What?"

"Your curse is very far from over. However, you do have a slight chance at being able to right whatever you can before everything else is set into motion."

I had ceased my struggles. He officially had my attention. "What are you talking about?"

"Through an amusing twist of fate, your curse has not had the desired affect that Aphrodite had hoped it would." The guy sounded weary, as if this was all he had heard all his life. Although, knowing what kind of a person Aphrodite was, he probably has. "The goal was to set you up with someone truly awful so that you would be miserable all your days, but, this doesn't seem to be the case."

When I opened my mouth to reply, he cut me off, not even needing to see me to know that I was going to talk. "I don't have enough time or power to stay and tell you everything, but what you need to know is in this place." He released me and spun me around. When I was facing him again, he was holding out a slip of paper.

I took it from him gingerly and looked at it.

_Cassia Mappes_

_142 Staywood Dr_

_Cavaleir, ND_

I looked back at him, but he held up a hand. "I promise you, Thea, I am not leading you into any sort of trap. My brothers and I are forced to work for that bitch and forced into cursing you. You don't trust me, I know, but when you go, make sure you take a strip of fresh rosemary and put it in your hair. It'll protect you against anything you face at this place."

And just as quickly as he had been there, he was gone.

_That was completely vague, unhelpful, and generally useless information._

I stared at the spot where he had vanished from. What is this shit? You can't just pop in, give cryptic information and leave!

After I ran back in and told the boys the story and my thoughts on the matter, they shared a knowing look.

"Actually, cryptic is mostly how these douche bags function." Sam said, opening a beer. "Gotta torture them to get anything straight from them."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "So what do we do now?" I started pacing. "Last time we checked, the omens were pointing us in the direction of New York, but now one of her cronies comes in and says what we need to know is in this particular place." I looked at the boys. "What should we do?"

Dean inhaled deeply. "Well, I don't really think that listening to one of the guys who cursed you in the first place is really one of the best ideas ever."

"Yeah," said Sam. "But what if there is actually something there that we need?"

Shocked, I turned to Sam. "Excuse me?"

"Think about it. Aphrodite is powerful sure, but even in mythology, she's nothing without Eros and the people who work for her. She's almost completely powerless without them. What if they're tired of taking her abuse? What if they want even too?"

"But if they wanted even, why wouldn't they just take their revenge on her themselves?" asked Dean.

"Thea said that it wasn't until she took off the necklace that Pothos came to her. What if there are certain things they can't do?"

"You mean kill their boss." I said flatly.

"Yeah, maybe." Sam looked frustrated. "Look guys, I'm just trying to throw out suggestions here. I'm as blind on this as you are."

"It does sort of make a tiny bit of sense," replied Dean. "But I still don't really think we should trust this guy."

We were silent for a moment, trying to come up with some sort of plan. Then I had something.

"Guys, what if we sent Castiel?"

Dean gaped at me. "What?"

I was getting excited. "What if we sent Castiel? He can pop in and pop out, see what all is there if anything and tell us what we need to know!"

"But what if it's dangerous?" asked Dean. He didn't look nearly as happy about it as I had thought he would.

"He's an angel, Dean. I highly doubt anything will affect him too much."

"No, we aren't just sending Cas into a situation we know nothing about."

I faltered. "But Dean, if he can help us then-"

"I said no, Thea." His Adam's apple bobbed as he tried to find words. "I'm not gonna risk Cas going into a situation like that blind."

"Dean, he's a fucking angel." I replied. I was starting to get annoyed. "They overthrew the pagans for a reason. A goddess like Aphrodite-"

"But it isn't just her!" he thundered. "We discussed this before. She has her cronies with her, she's completely deadly."

"But I don't feel like it's that sort of situation, Dean." I was almost begging him now. "I really don't feel like we're being set up with this."

"Then you must not feel that great because that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard."

I blinked. "Dean-"

"I said no, Thea. We aren't going to risk your or Cas. We're going to sit down and think this through for a little while."

"Dammit Dean!" I was trying to calm myself. I could feel my blood starting to boil.

"Hey, guys, we just need to calm down," Sam said soothingly.

I snapped my head to look at him. "Shut up Sam!" I turned my attention back to his brother. "When will you realize that this curse doesn't just affect me anymore?" I yelled.

"I realize it every fucking time I'm anywhere near your or apart from you!" Dean yelled back. "You aren't out of my mind for a god damn minute, ever! I'm reminded pretty much every second that I bear this curse right along with you, but guess what Thea? I'm bearing it _with _you. You aren't alone in this fight anymore."

He had calmed down and said the last part quietly, tenderly. So tender it brought tears to my eyes.

I wiped them away. "You're right." I told him. "And I'm sorry. I came to you in the first place, I shouldn't have gotten you all involved."

And I just broke. The tears just started to flow and I sank down to the floor, but before I hit, Dean's strong arms came around me, cradling me, taking the blow for me.

"This isn't right, Dean." I cried. "You've taken so many blows for so many people. You shouldn't have to do it for me either."

He didn't reply to me, just shushed me quietly while he smoothed my hair.

I cried for a long time. I hadn't truly sat and cried in a long time. I cried for the life that I had lost but never gained in the way I had hoped. I cried for the lives that I took away when I knocked on that chipped red door. I cried without shame and just buried my face in the comforting crook of Dean's neck, taking comfort in the warmth that his body gave and the pure, masculine smell of him. It was then that I made up my mind that if he was going to carry me, then I could do nothing but return the favor.

_He stared at them in jealously from his corner by the door, completely forgotten. Always forgotten. He hated that jealousy he felt, but he didn't understand. Why does no one ever go to him? He was better in every way, but it was never him. But maybe, he thinks as he slips silently out the door, maybe this time it could be him. He would bide his time, and he would wait._


	8. Chapter 8

Dean looked at Thea, his heart heavy.

She was sitting on the bed watching TV and eating a slice of pizza. She had calmed down a couple hours ago, but her eyes were still slightly puffy from it all. He had let her cry on his shoulder for a long while before she was able to regain herself.

She kept apologizing, but Dean didn't think she really had anything to be sorry for. She had been through a lot and sometimes people just have to cry. Even him.

He knew that she was embarrassed for her conflicting emotions. She felt like one of those vapid women from those douchey soap operas, but he understood. He felt the same way. He didn't really understand how one day could feel like a thousand, but this one certainly had. Over the course of the day, he had wanted to weep for her, run from her, run back to her, punch her, kiss her, never touch her again and make love to her until she saw starts.

He growled low in his throat. _Make love?_ What kind of pansy idiot was he turning into? He sorta sounded like Sam back in the early days.

His thoughts turned back to Sam and he got more concerned. He was truly scared as to how his little brother was reacting to all of this. He had disappeared when Thea was crying and he hadn't seen him since. It was hours later and all he had from him was a text that he had gotten a room at a motel on the opposite side of town.

Sam was a constant cause of worry to Dean, but at this point, he was so used to it that sometimes he didn't really realize that he was worrying until someone pointed it out to him. Ever since the whole demon blood and Ruby incident, Dean had never really completely trusted his brother after that, no matter what happened. He had forgiven him, sure, but never really trusted him.

Dean was still trying to figure out what to do about North Dakota. He had looked up the address and it was an old library in an almost forgotten town and nothing had shown up for a Cassia Mappes. If that wasn't fishy, he didn't know what was.

Yet, when he looked at Thea, all he wanted to do was make her happy. He knew that every bone in her body was screaming to go to North Dakota, to find a clue that could rid her of the curse that she bore, but she was trying so hard to ignore it. All for Dean's sake. After everything that he had done to her, she was still trusting him to do right by her. He admired her for that.

He went over and sat down next to her, grabbing a slice for himself. He felt her tense slightly and then relax again. They sat there for a little while, eating in silence while watching an old Clint Eastwood movie. He tried to focus on the movie, but he couldn't. Thea was sitting next to him, mouthing the words silently and he found it extremely distracting. And honestly, really sexy. How often does a beautiful girl know the lines by heart to a guy's favorite movie?

As if it was acting of its own accord, Dean's hand went to her hair, touching it ever so gently. She stiffened but said nothing. He continued to feel how soft her hair was, rubbing the silken strands between his finger tips. She had stopped mouthing the words, but her eyes were glued to the screen and she was holding her breath.

He leaned forward to inhale her shampoo, burying his face in her wealth of dark hair. He heard her gasp quietly and he froze, not wanting to upset her. When she didn't move away from him, he moved his head from her hair to the crook of her neck. His nose grazed her skin there, her soft warm skin.

As Dean moved closer to her, he felt her trembling. He lifted his head, looking down into her beautiful wide eyes. He moved his hand, very slowly, to her cheek, caressing the soft blushing skin.

"I'm so sorry, Thea," he whispered to her. "What I did to you can never be forgiven, I know that. But someday, if you let me, I want to show you…" he hesitated, trying to find his words. "I want to show you how it's _really _supposed to be, how it should never be about fear or hatred."

Her eyes shined at the tenderness in his green eyes. He wiped away a lone sparkling tear that drifted from her eye and he watched as her long lashed drifted down. She turned her face into his palm, seeking the comfort that it gave her. She opened her eyes when she felt his warm breath on her lips.

Her eyes opened and found his. His other hand came up, holding her face gently, telling her that she could pull away at any time. "May I kiss you, Thea?" His thumb drifted her full bottom lip. "I promise you I won't do anything else. I just want to give you a kiss."

Her eyes darted from his nervously, and as a nervous reaction, the tip of her tongue darted out to wet her lips. Dean stifled a groan, refusing to lose his control and lose her with it.

He waited until she looked at him again. She nodded her consent, and his lips came down on hers gently.

It was the softest kiss he had ever given a woman and for that he felt ashamed. He marveled however, about how soft her lips were. She tried to mirror his movements and he smiled slightly into the kiss.

He pulled back after a moment. He looked down at her, here eyes still closed and her lips still slightly puckered. She opened her eyes and looked at him questioningly.

"I don't want to lose control," he explained. "I won't do that to you again."

She was quiet for a second. Without warning, she put her hand behind his head and pulled him back to her. Their mouths crashed together, passion spilling from them that had been building.

Even as his tongue ran over her lip, asking for an entrance that she granted, Dean held back. He wanted her to come to him as much as she felt comfortable. He had to admit though, that was way harder to do as he tasted her, her tongue dancing with his.

She pulled back this time. She was breathless and looked shocked. He couldn't help but smirk at her a little. "You okay?"

She blushed prettily. "Yeah, it was just um, it was a pretty intense first kiss."

She laughed at his expression. "Yes, Dean, that was my first real kiss."

"Damn," he mumbled. "I just can't imagine that. I mean, you're how old?"

She punched his arm jokingly. "Shut up, Dean."

He smiled at her and leaned back on the bed. "Time to go to sleep. Long day ahead of us tomorrow."

She nodded and laid back next to him. "You're right."

"Always." He said cheekily.

"Smartass." She mumbled.

She curled up next to him and he put his arm around her, falling into a deep sleep.

* * *

When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I felt was warm. There was warmth all around me, like a cocoon and it took me a moment to realize why. There was a large, strong forearm slung across my waist that had pulled me tight to a hard body behind me. It took even less time to realize it was Dean behind me.

I couldn't help but smile a little and nestle even tighter into him. I finally understood why so many people hate not having this to wake up to. It's probably one of the best feelings I've ever had.

I blushed as I remembered our kiss from the night before. It had been sweet and gentle and then…passionate and almost wild. I had always heard it could be like that, but since I had never experienced it, well, I always thought people were overexaggerating.

Dean held me tighter and I snuggled into his chest. I was about to fall asleep when I felt _it. _

I felt my face go crimson and froze. _Well this is mildly awkward as shit._

It got even more embarrassing as I realized that neither of us had our jeans on anymore. We must've kicked them off during the night. I was bad about that and apparently so was Dean. Either way, his morning wood was a little closer to me at the moment than I really wanted it to be.

I wriggled myself out of his grasp, somewhat regrettably, climbed out of the bed and put a new pair of jeans on. I noted that I needed to do laundry at some point in the very near future or else the Winchesters would be putting up with a girl who could smell real bad.

I gathered up both mine, Dean and Sam's laundry and put them into a bag. I took it out to the Impala and threw it into the backseat, not really paying much attention. You can imagine my surprise when the backseat yelped back at me.

"Jeez, what the hell?" grumbled Sam, rubbing his eye where the bag had hit him.

"Sam?" I was baffled. "What are you doing in the back seat? You told Dean you got a room!"

He pinned me with a brooding look. "Well I lied."

That made no sense to me. "But why?"

"It isn't like I had a place in there." He replied. "Besides, I wanted to be alone anyway."

I didn't like his tone. "Who shit in your cereal this morning?"

He sneered at me. "Oh, sorry I'm not in the best of moods. I just slept in the backseat of a car."

"Not my fault. You're the one who lied and said you had somewhere to stay. You'd could've stayed in the same room."

Sam narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm not really in the mood to be lectured or mocked today, so if you could just hold off-"

"If you aren't in the mood to be lectured or mocked, then don't set yourself up for it, jackass."

I went to turn away, but quick as lightning, his arm shot out and grabbed me, turning me back towards him.

He brought his face inches from mine and I was rooted to the spot, a deer in headlights. What was wrong with him?

"Don't speak to me that way," he hissed at me. "I am _so _fucking tired of being lectured like a child from everyone in my life, and I don't need you of all people to do it too."

I just stared at him. Something just seemed…off about him. "Sam, are you alright?"

He let me go. "Fine." He inhaled deeply through his nose. "Just tired of being mistreated and forgotten."

I nodded but said nothing. What does a person say to that?

We stood there awkwardly before I decided to go back inside, leaving Sam in my wake.

I tried to reason with myself, knowing that the anger I felt towards Sam was, in fact, completely unfair. Dean had done the exact same thing to me, and yet I was cozying up just fine with him, but Sam? I was being completely awful to him. Perhaps this was what the curse would've been like.

And then it hit me. Maybe this was a plan all along.

I'm on my way to falling for one and hating the other. But I didn't feel like I hated Sam really. I hated Aphrodite, but definitely not Sam. I was just angry with Sam. I hoped that at some point I could let go of that anger.

I kept wondering about the curse as I walked back into the room. Dean was still asleep, clutching the pillow and snoring. I couldn't help but smile a little. The pull that I felt towards him was getting stronger by the hour, but I didn't want it to. I knew that at some point we would feel consumed by each other and maybe that was a side effect. I had hoped that maybe Dean could be a loophole, but maybe this was a plan all along.

I also couldn't even imagine actually sleeping with him consensually. Yes, we shared a passionate kiss but even then I was terrified at the thought of him on top of me, stifling me. Being in complete control over me.

I was hit with the shame of it all once again. Being completely naked and having them look over me, kissing me and touching me. Not being able to do a damn thing about it. Begging for mercy and not getting any.

I dashed the thoughts away. It was in the past now and I couldn't take it back. I decided that the only thing I could do now was press forward and kill Aphrodite.

I took a deep breath, walked over to the table and sat down. As I pulled up my computer and opened up a couple books and atlases, my mind was in no other place except North Dakota.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Thanks, first off, to everyone who has reviewed my stories! I adore getting the feedback and seeing people favorite them. Just makes my day! Also, sorry that I don't update all the time, but I do write a lot of my stuff in bulk. When I first published, I put six chapters up in one day. The updates should come with a little more regularity since this is what I do as I commute back and forth to work. Also, I know the story line isn't the most plausible, but I really just wanted a DeanxSamxOC story, even if I had to be the one to write it. Anyway, read it, give me feedback, and enjoy. Hopefully this will be the first and only author's note I ever write :)**_

_**xoxo,**_

_**Zeta Rose**_

When Dean woke up later that morning, he immediately noticed that Thea's soft warm body wasn't near him. He shot up, thinking something was wrong, but when he saw her sitting at the table, he relaxed.

"Mornin' sunshine," she said to him, not taking her eyes off the computer in front of her.

"Hey," he replied, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

He got up, went to the bathroom quickly and came back out. He went over to her and put one hand behind her and one hand on the table, leaning over her to see what she was doing. The computer screen was a map with little stars scattered about on it.

"What's this?"

"This," she replied, typing something in, "is a list of all Cassia Mappes in North Dakota. As you can see, there are only 4 of them in total. There is also not one that lives in the address given, which prompted me to look further into the actual location." She pulled up some old newspaper archives.

"See, location given to me is a really old library, probably almost a hundred years old. How can it be that old, you may ask. Well, my theory is that it wasn't settled by humans. I think this may be an old library that's either built on top of something or it's a cover for something. I looked back at the history of Cavaleir and saw that a lot of Greeks migrated there in the earlier part of the 20th century for God knows what reasons. I would assume farm land and that sort of thing."

"So are you thinking maybe some of the Greeks that moved there brought some sort of old magic with them?"

"It makes sense. Every culture in the world has stuff like this and the Greek gods were so influential that I'm quite certain there are still those people who worship them. I'm thinking that this library either used to be a shrine to Aphrodite or it has a ton of really old information about her that we aren't getting on the internet or in any of these books."

Dean was pretty impressed. "How long have you been working at this?"

She looked at a clock. "Two hours maybe? Not really that long."

"Damn." He rubbed his face with the back of his hand. "This is probably the latest I've slept in months. What time is it?"

"Eleven."

He grunted and went back to the bed and paused. "Where are all the clothes?"

"I put them into a bag to take to the laundry here in the near future." She looked up at him. "I need some done and figured I'd just throw yours and Sam's in with mine."

At the mention of his brother, Dean's ears perked up. "Have you heard from Sam?" he asked as he reached for his phone.

"Yes actually," she replied, looking back at her computer screen. "He's probably still out in the car."

Dean stopped short. "What?"

Thea started typing. "When I took the laundry out earlier, I accidently threw it on Sam. He didn't actually stay in another motel room, he stayed in the Impala."

He gaped at her. "Why?!"

She looked at the wall, a look that mirrored Sam's annoyed face almost perfectly. "Because he is 'tired of being mistreated and forgotten'. That sound about like your brother to you?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right," he mumbled. "I'm gonna go out and see if he needs anything."

He left Thea to her plotting and walked out to Baby. He looked into the backseat but his little brother wasn't there. Taking out his phone, he pressed his speed dial and waited for Sam to answer.

He picked up on the fourth ring. "Hey."

"Where are you Sam?"

"Getting lunch at the diner down the road." He paused. "What's up?"

"Why did you sleep in the car last night?"

Dean heard his brother exhale on the other end. "Because the motel down the road didn't have any rooms."

"Why didn't you just come back then? You could've stayed with us, Sam."

"Could I, Dean?" His brother was upset. Dean knew that tone better than probably anyone on the planet.

"Sam what are you talking about?" He didn't feel like playing the guessing game with his brother today.

"I'm not talking about this over the phone."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Then I'll meet you at the diner and we'll talk."

Another pause. "Fine." Sam grumbled. He hung up quickly and ran back inside.

"Hey Thea, I've gotta go talk to Sam about something. He's at the diner so I'm gonna drive there. Do you want anything?"

"Bacon cheeseburger with the works, onion rings with ranch and a chocolate milkshake," she replied. He was almost out the door before she called after him.

"Dean?"

He looked at her. "Yeah?"

She looked nervous. "Please try not to be gone for too long, okay?" She rubbed her sternum. "It hurts really bad when we're apart for too long."

He softened at that. "Okay. If it carries over, I'll come back with him and we'll just sit out in the car."

She nodded and he walked out the door. He almost shut it when he heard her yell, "Don't forget my ranch or I'll cut you!"

He chuckled and went to his car, climbed in, and drove to the diner.

Sam was in the far corner table, looking troubled as always. Dean took a seat across from his brother and looked at him. "What's goin' on, Sammy?"

Sam shifted uncomfortably. "I, uh…I'm having some pretty conflicting emotions right now."

"Such as?"

He hesitated. "I've been feeling really bizarely angry, since yesterday."

"Well that's sort of understandable given what's happened in the last couple days."

"No, Dean, I mean, I should be upset, sad, even angry at myself, but I'm not." Sam wouldn't look at his brother. Instead, he was staring at his cup of coffee that was sitting untouched. "I feel angry at Thea. Angry and…possessive."

Dean frowned. Not only was it somewhat disturbing what Sam was telling him, but it must really be upsetting his brother. Sam was rarely so forward about anything unless he was really truly upset.

"What do you think is up with that?"

Sam shrugged tensely. "I'm not sure. Maybe it has something to do with her curse. Maybe it affected us in a different way than it was supposed to."

Dean shook his head. "I'm pretty sure that when Thea was cursed she was meant to hate the guy it happened with, like a stranger or something. She would run away and then die because they were far apart for too long."

"Speaking of which," Sam interjected. "How is it that you're here? Where's Thea?"

"She's back at the motel. I told her that if the feeling got too bad to let me know and that we would go back."

"Anyway," said Sam. "What if that was the original purpose? What if Aphrodite had a backup plan?"

"Meaning?"

"If Thea was around multiple men at one time when the Need came on, she wouldn't have a chance. The whole point of it was for Thea to be miserable for the rest of her days, but what if Aphrodite thought that she might try to find a loophole and sleep with someone that she actually cared about?" Sam leaned forward. "What if the point now is to make her love one and have the one she doesn't love want her back?"

Dean looked at his brother like he had grown two heads, which was exactly what Sam wasn't wanting to happen.

"Really, Sam?"

"Dean, come on, I'm just trying to make sense of all of this! I'm trying to come up with theories as to why things are the way they are !"

"Yeah, well that's a pretty fucking terrible theory, so you might wanna think another one through before you go and spout it off to me!"

Dean was seeing red and in the back part of his head, he was asking why. Why would that theory make him so angry? If anything, it was actually a pretty good one, but Dean couldn't get past the thought of Sam touching Thea. He couldn't take it.

He jumped up from the table and stormed out the door, very aware that Sam was right on his heels. Once they got outside, Sam grabbed him and spun him around. Using his height to his advantage, he towered menacingly over his brother. "You know what, Dean? You're lucky that I haven't tried to get with her."

Dean met his brother's dark glare straight on. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"She likes you, sure, but I haven't even tried. You wouldn't have a chance if I came into the picture and actually tried to win her over."

Dean dug pinched this palm as hard as he possibly could to keep from knocking his brother on his ass. "Keep away from her Sam. Keep your distance or I-"

"Or you'll what!" he yelled. "Kill me? Beat me? Really, Dean? Over some piece of ass that you just got yesterday!"

It was then that Dean's mind cleared a little bit. "Sam, what's wrong with you right now. You've never acted this way before."

Sam laughed bitterly. "See, there's your problem, Dean. I just _tried _to tell you what I think is wrong, and you won't even listen to me!"

"You're pissed with me because I Thea wants me and not you?"

Sam ran his hands through his hair. "I'm pissed that you refuse to even acknowledge that I could be any sort of challenge to you at anything! Anything, Dean! You always assume you're better at everything, but how many times have I proven you wrong!"

"We aren't discussing this any-"

And just then, fire went through his body.

Dean didn't make a sound, just opened his mouth in a wordless scream, as he crumpled to the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

Through his haze of anger, Sam watched with horror as his brother collapsed in a way that he had never seen him do before. The pain was so sudden and so intense that it played fully through his features as he crumped in a heap.

"Dean!" he yelled, rushing to his side. He dropped to his knees, feeling Dean's neck for a pulse. His brother was stiff, as if unconsciousness wasn't enough to get him out of the pain he was in. His pulse was frantic and Sam knew there wasn't much time before his brother was dead.

He did the only thing he knew to do. "Cas!" he screamed. "Cas, please! Dean's dying, I need your help!"

Cas came in so quickly and zapped them out so fast, Sam didn't have much time to process what was going on. When he looked up, he was back in the motel room. Cas had Dean in his arms, carrying him to the bed.

It wasn't until Castiel put him down that Sam saw Thea laying there, body stiff and eyes wide open with tears leaking out of them. She looked like she was gasping for air and nothing was coming from her.

As soon as Cas put Dean on the bed, he pushed Thea and Dean together, wrapping Dean's arm around Thea. Almost immediately, Thea gasped for air, sobs tearing their way out of her chest. It wasn't even seconds before she lost consciousness, her body going limp against Dean. Sam saw that his brother had also gone limp against the girl in his arms, his face much less tense, but a frown still wrinkling his brow.

Sam spun towards Castiel, who was looking at the pair with concern. "Cas, what the _hell_ was that?"

"I assume it is the curse," Cas replied grimly. "It's getting worse for the both of them. Why were they separated in the first place?"

Guilt started to sink into Sam's body. "He came to see me, said they had a plan if it got bad. He didn't even act like anything was wrong…"

But maybe he had been, but because they were too busy fighting with each other, he had shoved it aside to deal with his brother.

"Cas, why was it so bad this time? Yesterday it was chest pain and now its full body lock up. What's causing this?"

"I'm not sure, Sam. I don't understand why it would be so much worse only twenty four hours later." Cas looked at Thea. "She called me only moments before you did." He looked back to Sam. "I tried to put her to sleep again, but my power didn't work. This is very bad, Sam."

Sam looked at the two lying on the bed. Their faces looked peaceful now, and his gut clenched.

"We have to go to North Dakota," he said quietly.

The angel looked at him curiously. "North Dakota?"

Sam explained what had happened in the last day since he had seen him, including the anger and lust that Sam was feeling. When he was finished, he noticed that Cas was looking at him with a weird look.

He shifted. "What?"

"You're not usually so forward." Cas said. "It usually takes months to get one word of honest emotion out of either of you."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Cas, we have a bigger problem here. I wanted to _hurt _Dean less than an hour ago. I wanted to take Thea from him and _make _her be with me. We need to find out how to get to Aphrodite and stop her before anything worse happens!"

"I do not disagree," Castiel said. "There is some sort of information that we don't have and at this point the best idea is to go to where the demi god directed her."

"Will you come with us?"

"Yes. If you come upon ancient writings you may need me to translate."

Sam nodded, suddenly very tired. He wanted to curl up beside Thea, bury his face in her hair and go to sleep. "Cas, she wanted to send you in the first place, but Dean didn't want you to go by yourself." He looked at the angel. "If Aphrodite and her gang had showed up, do you think you could've fought them off?"

"It depends. One is easily destroyed, if there is more than one and I am all alone, then it gets much more difficult. If I had a garrison behind me it would be different, but just being me, well, it would depend on how strong they are."

Sam stood up and began to pace. "When should we wake them up to leave? I don't want to wait too much longer because our emotions are getting stronger."

Castiel examined the two again. They were completely relaxed now, as if they had just dozed off together. "They need an hour or two to recover and we'll take them then."

"Can you take all of us?"

Cas considered it for a moment. "I should be able to without any trouble. We shall wait for them to wake up, tell them our plan, and then go before it gets any worse."

For the next few hours, Sam paced nervously around the room while Castiel sat in a chair and watched. Sam tried to distract himself by reading and watching TV, but nothing was helping him much. He plopped down at the chair where Thea must've been sitting previously. When he looked closer, he saw notes that she had scribbled.

_Building architecture sugg. that worshipers of old held meet._

_More bitch signs_

_Big on love and punishment_

_Survive without cronies? _

"Hey Cas, I think that Thea was investigating the library we have to go to while Dean was gone." Sam turned the computer to Cas. "Take a look."

Castiel went over the notes and looked at the pictures. "I cannot distinguish too much from only the pictures. The Greek pantheon has been very influential to humanity for thousands of years so it is difficult to tell whether or not they actually worshipped there or not."

They both heard a groan from the bed. Thea was waking up, rubbing her forehead.

"What happened…where?" She sat up slowly and looked around. She saw Castiel first, then Sam. "You saved me, didn't you?"

"Perhaps," replied Cas. "You called me and I got here as you collapsed. You were in great amounts of pain."

She hugged her knees to her chest. "Yeah, I remember now. It's all coming back."

Dean moved beside her. She looked back to the two men standing at the end of the bed. "What about Dean?"

"Same thing happened to him from what Cas says," replied Sam. "We were in the parking lot of the diner and he just…collapsed."

She looked at Dean and reached out to him, smoothing his brow with her fingertips. "Thank you for bringing him back." She turned back to Sam and Cas. "I don't know why it was so bad, it shouldn't have ever been like that. I didn't even feel it coming."

Dean started to stir beside her and opened his eyes. He groaned and rolled over onto his back, rubbing his eyes. When he sat up, he looked at the end of the bed with squinted eyes. "Did one of you hit me in the head with a bat?"

"You passed out, Dean," Sam said.

"Huh?"

"You collapsed in pain and Cas brought us back, when we were at the diner." Sam paused. "You had to be put back with Thea."

At the mention of Thea, Dean looked around for her and once he spotted her by his side, he relaxed. "It must've hit us quick, huh?"

She nodded, laying her head on her arms. "I was just working over at the table and it just…felt like fire was going through me. Like someone was stabbing me with a thousand knives."

Dean nodded. "I know the feeling." When he looked at his brother, Sam knew that he was remembering the conversation that they had been having before all of this had happened. "Did you bring me back here?"

Sam stiffened slightly. "Yeah. I called Cas and he came for us. If I had driven it would've taken too long."

Cas stepped forward. "We've decided that now is the time to go to this library. We do not understand why the pain has gotten worse or why emotions are running higher than they should be. We must leave immediately."

"How are we getting there?" Thea asked as she stood up, stretching her muscles and wincing slightly.

Sam pushed down the hot desire that welled up inside of him by that innocent act. "Cas will take us."

Dean, who had also been stretching, snapped his head up. "We can't just go in with no plan-"

"What else are we supposed to do, Dean! This just about killed you!"

Dean opened his mouth to reply, but Thea put a hand on his arm. "Dean, he's right. We have a general idea about what we could be dealing with, and now we just have to go in with guns blazing."

"But before we go," she said, addressing the others. "I want us to take some precautionary measures." She went over to the table and picked up a book with multiple symbols in it. "I found this a few years ago. It has warding symbols for pretty much everything and anything you need it to hold off. It has a few things that could protect us temporarily from anything Aphrodite could throw at us, so I suggest we draw this on us before we go."

She saw the questioning stares from the boys. "I tried to use them a while back but they wouldn't stick to me since I was already cursed. They might work for me now, but they should definitely work for you guys."

They held still while she put the sigil on them, drawing it on with a permanent marker.

"Uh, Thea," said Dean as she bent over his bicep, "I don't really think that marker works with these things."

"Why wouldn't they?" she asked absent mindedly.

"Well, usually it's supposed to-"

"Yours it tattooed on you, which is just a more extreme form of drawing." She stepped back and peered at her work. "This should work."

The men exchanged nervous glances over her head but didn't argue. She drew hers carefully and once it didn't burn her, she looked up to them. "Ready?"

"Not really," mumbled Dean, but he put his hand on Castiel's shoulder nonetheless.

In a split second, they were standing out in front of the old library.

It was dusk and the poor quiet town in which the library was located was settling down to sleep. The library itself looked completely out of place on the street. It was large and brick all around except the front was made of marble. The overhanging roof was supported by Grecian style columns and the details up around the roof portrayed various pictures of Greek mythology.

It wasn't in good shape. It looked like no one had used the library in years. The windows were boarded up and the big front door was padlocked. However, a couple boarded windows and a padlock had never stopped the Winchesters in their life.

They walked around the building a couple times, surveying possible exits and entry ways that they could use if necessary. They decided to use a side door instead of the front door for the sake of discresion.

Sam picked the lock with quick efficiency and the four entered the building, guns drawn and on the defensive for anything to come out at them.

It was dark and smelled of stale, wet paper. The library must've been recently abandoned because there wasn't as much trash on the ground as would be expected. Cob webs filled the spaces and Thea had to push down a mounting panic that was threatening to consume her.

"Okay guys," she whispered hoarsely, "The old blue prints said that the basement was accessible through the fiction section on the west side. There should be staircase that heads down, and my best bet is that anything we really want to find will be down there or even in a separate room off of it."

They grunted and made their way to the fiction section and to the door that marked their destination.

Dean stood at the door tensely for a moment and looked back at the three people right on his heels.

Why did he always have to go first?

He rolled his eyes and opened the door quickly, shining the flashlight down the stairs. There was nothing to be seen at the moment, so he descended down cautiously, Sam, Cas and Thea right on his heels.

Thea turned her head slightly to Castiel as they went down the stairs. "Sense anything, Castiel?"

He shook his head. "Not yet."

She exhaled and nodded. "I guess that's not a bad thing…"

Their feet touched the solid ground and they looked around slowly. There was nothing to really warrant any concern yet. There were shelves and bins full of old books and papers. Files that had never been taken away were scattered about the place haphazardly and the place smelled like mold and shit.

"We're looking for something old, something written in Greek," said Thea. "It'll probably be along the walls."

Dean looked back to them. "Me and you can split off together Thea and Sam and Cas can go the other way. We'll cover more ground and find stuff faster."

Before he had even finished she was shaking her head. "Hell no. We are staying with the angel at all times."

"Thea-"

"Guys!"

Everyone looked at Sam, who was staring at the corner. "Do you see that?"

Over in the corner, caught in the aura of the flashlight, was a small statue on a shelf. It was a cherub holding its bow and arrow. They went over to it quickly and looked around, trying to find any sort of sign that might show them what to do.

"Look," said Sam. "There's something here…"

A series of ancient letters were carved into the side of the shelf, the arrow pointing at them directly. They turned to the angel beside them.

He peered at the inscription, frowning as he did so.

"Well?" said Dean. "What's it say?"

"_Passion opens what once was closed." _Cas looked confused. "It doesn't make much sense."

"Passion?" Thea 's face was thoughtful. "A kiss maybe?"

The boys gaped at her. "What?" she asked defensively. "Goddess of love and all that bullshit, we'll be lucky we don't have to fuck to get in."

"So…" Dean hesitated. "Should we kiss and see if it works?"

"No, Dean, I think you and Castiel should try it," she replied, completely stone faced.

Even the angel's eyebrows were up to his hair line in surprise at what she had just said and even in such a tense place, she had to laugh. "I'm just kidding, you idiots. Yes, we should probably…uh, try that, I guess."

Just as they stepped closely to each other, Thea noticed something she hadn't before. "Wait!"

She went over and looked harder at the inscription. Directly below it was what looked like a lock. A lock that looked quite a bit like the necklace she had worn for years.

Her mouth was dry as she took the necklace from her pocket and with shaking hands inserted it into the hole. She turned it and for a moment, nothing happened.

And then, all of a sudden, the shelf heaved and moved back, swinging out of the way, revealing a long dark tunnel.

"Typical," muttered Dean. "What's wrong with brightly lit passages above ground? The sun would do these sons a bitches good every once in a while..."

They all nodded in agreement and with baited breath proceeded down to whatever awaited them at the end.


	11. Chapter 11

I walked behind Dean, my heart pounding in my chest. Our flashlights were powerful and bounced off the damp walls, but there is always that dark that the light can't reach. That's the scariest part of it all, not knowing what's beyond that darkness.

We walked for a really long time, almost half an hour, before reaching the end of the tunnel. In front of us was a large marble door, plain with nothing in particular on it. Just a handle. It looked so simple, but those were always the most dangerous types of set ups. The ones that were so simple it didn't seem possible.

We looked at Castiel, who was standing behind me. "I feel nothing threatening yet," he murmured, like he was deep in thought. Or listening.

I looked back to Dean. "Well, it's now or never." I said breathlessly. I was trying so hard to not be a wuss and was tremendously happy that I had gone to the bathroom when we pulled into town. I was trembling and I could see in Dean's eyes that he knew how scared I was.

"Thea, we can still go back," he said gently. "I'll send Cas with you and me and Sam can-"

"No," I replied sharply. "This is my curse and _I'm _going to deal with it."

I moved in front of him, took a deep breath, and pulled on the handle.

The door swung open and warm air hit me. Instead of fetid stench hitting me, like I had been expecting, the smell of flowers surrounded me instead.

Beyond the door was a large sprawling garden with every kind of flower in it. There was a glass dome allowing the sun to come to the flowers and the sound of birds and running water filled my ears. Marble statues were peppered all over the place, most of them portraying Aphrodite or Eros in some fashion.

"Dean," I heard Sam whisper behind me. "This looks like-"

"Shh!" Dean hissed at him. He came up behind me, tense but shocked. Just like all of us.

We moved onward, taking in all of the sights. It was so beautiful and a mildly lethargic feeling came over me. I just wanted to lay down and stay here forever.

I shook my head, startled. Where'd that thought come from? My mind felt slightly hazy and I tried to push it away. I had to be sharp, focused.

We soon came to a large fountain, three tiered with water flowing from it powerfully. It was circular, the lip of it large enough to lay on.

Which was exactly what the woman in front of us was doing.

I jumped and fumbled with my gun, but Dean and Sam were ready. "Hey!" shouted Dean. "Turn around where we can see you!"

The woman didn't move for a moment. "Don't think I won't shoot you, lady." Dean growled. "I'll give you to the count of three. One, two-"

"Oh, Dean, so aggressive," came a soft melodic voice. "There's no need for violence here."

"Who are you!" he demanded, never once blinking or wavering with his firearm.

"I am known, dear boy, as Cassia Mappes. I believe you all are looking for me."

She turned around and we took a step back, out of defensiveness and shock.

The woman was beautiful. She had long honey blond hair that fell past her shoulder blades, curling prettily around her face. She wore a traditional Greek chiton dress, the light fabric showing off her stunning body. Her lips were thin, but attractively so and they were smiling at us slightly. However, the most captivating thing about this Cassia woman was her eyes.

They were almost white they were so pale and you knew just by looking that she was blind. Framed by thick dark lashes, this woman was beauty incarnate.

I stared for a moment before regaining my voice. "Who are you?"

She laughed. "You already asked that and I gave you my answer."

"Then what are you?" asked Sam.

"Psyche."

We turned to Castiel, who had spoken up. He didn't look at us, just stared at the woman in front of him.

Her smile never left. "Hello, Castiel." Her eyes went to the sky, as if she was listening, but they never focused on anything. "Yes, it's true. It's my old name, but honestly, I prefer the name that I gave myself, if you don't mind. That was my past, and this is my present."

I nodded dumbly. Dean spoke. "Why were we sent here to you?"

"Ah, there is the million dollar question!" she exclaimed.

"Dean," I whispered. "We should go. That's Aphrodite's _daughter."_

"Excuse me, daughter _in-law _." Cassia said pleasantly. "Luckily for you four, I loathe Aphrodite just as much as you do, and even luckier still, there are just as many who feel the same way."

"What are you talking about?" asked Dean. He still, even now, had not dropped his weapon, only lowered it slightly.

"Thea, darling," she said, ignoring Dean. "I'm so very glad to finally meet you, but I am so sorry we had to meet under such pretenses."

I frowned, but before I spoke, she raised her hand. "Please, you must listen to me and we don't have much time to argue."

She looked at the boys then, so sharply that I thought maybe she wasn't blind after all. "You three will do well to just sit and listen for a moment, alright?"

They didn't nod, but they also said nothing. Cassia took that as a go ahead and beckoned me over to the fountain to sit down on the edge with her. I did as shown and looked to the boys. Where would they sit?

They stood standing, not willing to sit on the fountain or on the ground. My heart swelled a little then. Always ready, never off guard. Always ready to defend.

"Thea, as you know, I am the daughter in-law of Aphrodite. My husband Eros, yes that one, and I have been in America for hundreds of years now. I too was cursed by Aphrodite as a mortal and have never forgiven her for it. That is why I'm blind." She gestured to her eyes. "Persephone's sleeping draught was very harmful and I had lost my sight before Eros found me. Not to worry, however. I can still see, but in a bit of a different way."

She waved her hands in the air, like she was clearing her thoughts. "Now, Thea, what I'm about to tell you will be very difficult to understand. You probably won't believe me, but I'll have Castiel confirm to you whether or not I'm lying."

I looked at Castiel, surprised. He stared at us stonily and Cassia laughed. "Oh, come now Castiel, don't be so droll. I'll need your confirmations, all right?"

He said nothing but nodded slightly. She turned back to me.

"Thea, the reason that you were cursed isn't because your father just happened to see your mother and run away with her. And please," she said as I opened my mouth to interrupt, "Hold all questions until I'm finished. Whatever I can't tell you Castiel will fill you in on because he'll be learning the full story as I tell it.

Now, your father was in fact having a love affair with Aphrodite, and yes, he left Aphrodite for your mother, but the reason that she was so angry was because your mother was one of Aphrodite's priestesses.

It is strictly forbidden for priests or priestesses of the gods to sleep with their lovers, but your parents defied it all and got _married. _ That is why she cursed you so harshly. Well, that and she hadn't gotten her bitch kicks in a while."

Tears had come into my eyes and I looked to Castiel, begging him with my eyes to tell me that it wasn't true, that my parents hadn't told me such a big lie. He avoided my eyes, telling me everything I needed to know.

A soft, cool hand went over mine. Cassia was looking at me with sadness. "I'm sorry, Thea," she whispered. "Humans are so often caught in the crosshairs of immortals. It's wrong, but they don't care."

I cleared the lump away in my throat. "Why was I sent here?"

"Ah, yes." She reached into the water of the fountain and brought out of it a large, beautifully made knife.

I jumped up, ready to run and the boys ran to me. "Oh, stop it, all of you." She waved her hand and the boys were forced down onto the ground.

"Hey!" cried Dean, struggling against an invisible force that was holding him on the grass.

"Dean," she said sharply. We all froze. Her voice had boomed around the garden, her power emanating from her in waves. "I have already told you I will not harm any of you. I cannot help that you don't trust me, but don't make Thea suffer for your insecurities!"

If looks could kill, Cassia would be dead by now. But, Dean wisely shut his mouth and looked to his brother, who looked just as pissed off as Dean did.

"Thea, this knife is very important. Forged from the blood of her followers in the fires of Tartarus, this knife is one of the very few things that will kill Aphrodite without killing those who cursed you first to get there." She held the knife out to me, but I didn't take it.

"What if I want to kill the ones that cursed me?" I asked, my voice trembling. "They deserve it just as much as she does."

Cassia looked sad again. "Thea, those who cursed you are bound to Aphrodite. They can't tell her no, especially when it was something as big as that. Pothos and my husband, especially. They want Aphrodite as dead as you do. If your twenty something years have been bad, think about how terrible it's been since this world and it's people have been in existence?" Her hand drifted into the water and she swayed it in the water in a soothing motion. "You're the only one who can pull this trigger, Thea. It was a big day when you were born because you are the one destined to put this knife through the heart of that whore."

The shock washed over me. "Destined?"

She nodded. "Just as you were to meet that man sitting right there."

"But, I…doesn't she know?"

Cassia smiled conspiringly. "She thinks that you died hundreds of years ago."

"What?" Sam spoke for all of us. "Look, lady, we really appreciate this, we do, but we came here to figure out what to do about the curse. It's gotten really bad in the past few days and it almost killed the two of them."

Cassia looked at Sam. "Don't worry, Sam. I'll get to that momentarily." She turned back to me. "Thea, hundreds of years ago, your soul was first born into the world. It's been killed off many times since then, the last time back in the sixteen hundreds by Aphrodite herself. Honestly, I didn't expect to see you here, but I knew the moment your soul came back to the world.

You see, Thea, she didn't detect your soul this time because of her rage and hate towards your parents. Every other time, she's had only you to focus on, but she's easily distracted and as we know not terribly bright so she simply thought she was cursing a mortal."

"This makes no fucking sense," I said loudly. "Do you realize how ridiculous all of this is?"

"Darling girl, I stopped thinking things were ridiculous when ants helped me sort grains for my first trial to get my husband to trust me again."

"Why is the curse so much worse then?" I asked. "If she was cursing a regular mortal, why did we almost die yesterday?"

"Yeah!" chimed in Dean. He was still sitting on the grass, held down by Cassia's power.

The goddess sighed and stood up, walking past the four of us. She was tense and trying to find her words. "Because the curse didn't go exactly as it was supposed to."

I made a 'duh' face at her while Dean and Sam swore repeatedly.

"Be quiet all of you," she snapped. "Thea was supposed to be tied to someone she loathed or at the very least didn't know at all. However, she came to know you and like your company. And, as it turns out, you and charming Dean over there, you're actually soul mates."

The air was quiet. No one knew what to say. I stared in shock at Cassia and didn't take my eyes off of her. I was afraid to look at Dean, but he was looking straight at me. I could feel his eyes burning a hole in my cheek.

"What are you talking about?" I whispered. "How?"

"It just so happened that you sought out your soul mate, Thea, so to an extent you were somewhat lucky-"

"_Lucky?"_ I screeched. "You call being raped by two men that you trusted _LUCKY?!"_

"I'm afraid, Thea, that your soul was cursed to be hurt that way. Which brings me to my next point." She sat back down on the fountain. "The reason that the curse is getting worse and worse is because you two haven't slept together again."

"Huh?" That time, all three of us were together.

"When Aphrodite placed her curse, she assumed that some scumbag would rape you, keep you because you were desireable and then just keep you to himself for the rest of your days. He would've raped you regularly, lessening the pain of being away from you. Since, however, the man you ended with is a good man. He is respecting you and denying himself the carnal desire that he feels for you. Yes, Dean," she said, turning her attention to him. "I know all about your feelings for her. You crave her constantly and are intensely possessive, but you are doing so well with it. Many men in your shoes wouldn't have made it this far."

"You two must be together again, in every way, and if you aren't, then the next separation will surely kill the both of you."

Tears had come to my eyes. "I don't know…I don't think I can…"

Cassia's hand brushed my hair. "You must darling. I'm telling you this, though. That man is a part of you. He will take care of you more than anyone else in his life." She whispered the last part so neither Dean or Sam could hear. "He will treat you like a goddess. You just need to open yourself up to him."

"But, Psy-Cassia. It'll be like…it all over again…"

"No, my dear," she cooed softly. "Making love with your soul mate is the most amazing experience you will ever have in your life. It's nothing like the violation that you experienced that first time."

The tears were making their way down my cheeks. I couldn't bear the thought.

She ran her hand over the air, like she was touching a wall and I saw the boys start to struggle and yell. Castiel was trying to talk to them, but they weren't listening. "Stop!" I yelled. "What are you doing!"

"I need to speak for your ears only now, Thea. You must listen now, we haven't much time." She grabbed my shoulders. "You will be the one who has to kill Aphrodite. It will get rid of your curse, yes, but you must know that your feelings for Dean will not go. Once she knows that you are coming for her, she will use him against you, so you must be ready for awful things to happen. She plays dirty, you know."

She pulled off a necklace and put it in my hand but didn't let go. "I've been wearing this for hundreds of years to keep myself hidden from her. She will know that you're coming, but she won't know where you are. This is very time sensitive, Thea, so you must be ready to strike when you can!"

I nodded dumbly. "But Cassia, what-"

She smiled gently at me. "There is no more time, my dove. It is time for you to return and to go and live. Remember, if you and Dean don't consummate, you _will _die the next time you are separated. There's no going back now."

She let go of my hand, leaving the necklace in it. I slipped it over my head quickly and got up from the fountain, holding the knife in my hands. Cassia brought down the barrier and Dean ran to me, grabbing my arms and pulling me to him, holding the gun out in front of him, ready to shoot. "What did you-"

"I've no more time left, my dears." Cassia announced loudly. "I must go, but I'm counting on seeing you all again one day." She smiled at all of us, but her eyes lingered on Castiel.

"Tell them what you must, angel. Tell them what I couldn't."

He nodded slowly and we began to walk away when Cassia called out my name. I looked back and for the first time, I heard her voice whisper through my head.

_Stay away from Sam Winchester._

**_A/N: Don't worry, I know these last two chapters have been pretty lame but they'll get much better. Had to move the story along somehow._**

**_Zeta Rose_**


	12. Chapter 12

The goddess who had stood before them vanished before their eyes, her garden vanishing right along with her. The four were left standing the dank basement they had started in, as if they had never trekked down that long foreboding hallway that led to the most beautiful place they had ever seen in their lives.

They glanced at each other but said nothing, walking heavily up the stairs like the worst news in the world had been told to them.

They should be happy, they think as they walk out into the dimly lit parking lot. They got the answer to their questions, but the solutions just seemed so much more difficult than they had anticipated.

Thea had stepped away from the Winchester brothers so that she was on the end at the left hand of Castiel. She touched his arm, ready for him to take them back to that old motel room. Not a word was said as the brothers grabbed ahold of their friend and it was still quiet when they found themselves in the old room that held such foul memories for all of them.

_Why haven't we left this place yet? _Thea asked herself. It felt cramped with the four of them in it. She figured it would feel that way even if it was just her.

"Guys, can we move onto a different town?" she said quietly. "I don't really want to be here anymore."

Dean and Sam just nodded and gathered their things quickly, Thea following their actions. Castiel had vanished, but something told Thea that if she needed him, he would be back.

The car ride was awkward, even with Dean's music playing. It seemed like his sad day playlist, and Thea soon found herself switching out the tapes and instead just turning on the radio.

They drove for hours into the night. Time had slowed while they were in the presence of Cassia and they found that only thirty minutes had passed when it had felt like hours. They arrived in the small town of Versailles, Indiana around midnight, pulling into the town's small motel parking lot. Thea stepped out of the car and stretched her legs, watching Dean go inside the house to pick up keys.

She didn't notice the car door close until she felt Sam's body heat on her shoulder. Cassia's final warning went through her head. _Stay away from Sam Winchester._

"How're you feeling?" he asked her softly. She was trying to understand why Cassia would say that. Sure she didn't really like it when he was around her too much, but she never got the feeling of malevolence when he was around.

"Tired," she sighed. "Shaken. Confused. Pissed off."

"Yeah, that's usually how these types of exchanges go." She could feel his eyes on her and she suddenly wished that Dean was around.

He shifted so that he was turned toward her and she kept looking away from him, nervous about how he was looking at her. "You know, Thea, if you ever need anything from me-"

"Can we not do this, Sam?" Thea stepped away from him, putting much needed space between them.

"Thea," he huffed, "I'm just trying-"

"I know, Sam, you're sorry, you're there if I need you, blah blah blah. I just am so tired of hearing that right now, so I really just need you to stop saying it, okay?"

She snuck a peak at him through the corner of her eye and saw that he was _livid. _She heard him taking in breaths to reply, but nothing was coming out. His nostrils were flared and in the dark of the night, his eyes looked black.

Thankfully, before he found his voice, Dean walked out of the office, two keys in his hands. Sam didn't even wait for his brother to give him his key. He just walked up, snatched one out of his hands, went into the room it unlocked and slammed the door.

Dean looked from the door back to Thea. "What-"

"Nothing," she said tartly. "Let's just go."

He looked like he wanted to say something but he let it go as he tossed her the key to the room and went to the trunk of his car. As he opened it up, his thoughts strayed to what the goddess had told them. He hadn't been able to think past it.

He knew that his desire for Thea had risen tremendously. It was like every hour he thought about it more and more and it was getting to the point where he was craving her and using every ounce of will power he had not to touch her. He wanted to make her writhe in pleasure and beg him to love her. He swore to himself though that he wouldn't do that without her permission.

However, he kept thinking about how when Aphrodite found out their plan, she'd be on them like white on rice and separate them, using them against each other. The ache he felt was starting in his chest even now when he was only twenty feet away from her. He knew that the woman wasn't lying to them when she said that they would die next time. They may not get the opportunity to call for Cas again.

He grabbed his bag and Thea's, closing the trunk door and heading into their room. He had considered having the three of them share a room, but after recalling the conversation he had shared with his brother earlier in the afternoon, he had decided it was best for all of them if they slept separately. He had put Sam in room five while him and Thea were in ten. He opened the door and walked in, looking around at the small room. It had two full sized beds, a small TV on the two dressers pushed together and down the short hall was a table with the bathroom door across from it.

The toilet flushed and Thea walked out moments later, her hair thrown up into a messy pony tail.

"I'm not kidding you when I say that my knees damn near touched the shower stall sitting on the toilet," she told him, opening her bag to pull out some night clothes.

"Welcome to life one the road," he replied with a chuckle. "Sometimes you get a decent room, but they're generally pretty similar to this one."

She grunted but said nothing. He knew she wanted to get dressed so he went to the bathroom himself and took care of everything that needed taking care of before coming back out.

His breath left his lungs when he saw her. She wasn't in anything that's meant to be sexy. Her slightly large and ratted Jack Daniel's t-shirt hung off of her loosely and she was wearing what appeared to be a pair of boxers. Even in such simple clothes like that, she took his breath away.

When Thea heard him come out of the bathroom, she didn't say anything, didn't even look away from the TV. But, when she realized that Dean hadn't moved, she looked at him, blushing immediately when she saw that he had disrobed himself down to just his jeans.

She looked back to the screen quickly, trying to pretend that she hadn't seen the tent in his jeans between his legs, that she hadn't seen the look of raw desire on his face as he looked at her.

Feeling the bed sink beside her, she tensed.

"Thea," he said quietly. "I know this isn't what you wanted. I know that you probably dreamed of a guy that you met who took you out on dates, got to know you, fell in love with you and then it all goes from there, and I'm sorry that I'm not what you want."

She shook her head, keeping her eyes away from him. "You have no idea what I wanted, Dean."

"So tell me."

She sighed. "Obviously it wasn't so simple." She thought for a moment. "Honestly, I just wanted to be left alone. I didn't care so much about physical aspects of relationships, but I thought about it sometimes. I just wanted to be able to go out in public and not worry about anything."

His large hand enveloped hers, making her breath hitch. "When this is all over, Thea, and I promise you it will be, you'll be able to do that."

"Dean," she whispered, "I don't know-"

"Shhh," His other hand came up to caress her cheek and turn her face up to his. She wanted to look away from the intensity in his eyes, but his hand held her gently in place. "I promise you, Thea, that everything will turn out alright."

"How can you make a promise like that?" Tears were falling now.

He didn't answer her. Instead, he brought his lips down to hers, gently at first, but when she didn't fight him, he let his passion take hold.

As Dean kissed her, Thea tried to think rationally. _This isn't him thinking, _she chanted to herself, _it's the curse…_

But what if it wasn't? She found that he was stirring something in her that she had never felt. As she found herself returning his kiss with as much passion as he was giving to her.

His tongue slid over her bottom lip and she opened herself to him. Their tongues danced together as Dean caressed her hair, her cheeks, her neck, memorizing every part of her with his fingertips. He found himself wanting to know every part of her body, every contour, every mole and freckle, every dimple.

He shifted her into his arms and pulled her forward onto his lap, making her straddle him. He felt her tense slightly, but he relaxed her with his lips, his hands. His hands slid down her sides to the edge of her shirt. He so badly wanted to feel her against him, skin to skin, but he was trying so hard to make her feel comfortable.

Thea jumped at the first feeling of his fingers on her bare sides. She hadn't even realized that his hands had reached under her shirt. She had been too focused on his mouth in the crook of her neck, biting and teasing her. Her hands clenched in his hair, nervous about his hands where they were but she made no moves to stop him.

A shiver went through her body as his hands slowly ascended to her breasts. He touched them lightly but left them quickly to pull her shirt over her head. This movement broke their contact and they looked into each other's eyes.

Thea felt the nervousness run through her body. She knew that if she kissed him again, it would seal her fate. She was shaking, thinking about the pain she might feel, the embarrassment, but the words that the goddess had said to her flashed through her mind.

_It's nothing like the violation that you experienced that first time._

As that sentence ran through her thoughts, her eyes stayed with Dean's as she lowered her head back to his, taking his lips with hers.

As Dean kissed her and ran his hands up her back, he knew that he was in trouble. He felt so much for this girl he had met only days ago. He could even say that he loved her. Could he, though? It had only been days and he hadn't fallen for someone that quickly since Cassie. Even Lisa had taken longer than three days.

He dashed the thoughts of his past loves from his head. This was his present, right in front of him, open and trusting a man for the first time in her life. He marveled at her beauty, her strength and determination in all that she had faced, and brought his head to her chest.

In the first second, Thea wanted to pull away from Dean's hot, demanding mouth on her breast, but his arms held her tightly in place. Soon, she felt only pleasure and all negative thoughts slowly but surely left her brain.

_Perhaps Cassia was right, _she thought as Dean laid her down. _Maybe we really are soul mates. Maybe I really do love him. _

He kissed his way down her stomach and pulled off her shorts as he slid down. She jumped at the cool air that his her most sensitive area and a thrilling shiver went up her body, giving her goose bumps. Dean settled himself there, between her legs, and slipped his arms around her thighs and dipped his head into her.

She jerked at the first stroke of his tongue, a strangled gasp ripping its way from her throat. He held her gently but firmly and lapped at her until she saw stars. She bucked her hips to him, not knowing or understanding what she was feeling but what she did know was that it was incredible.

Dean loved the taste of her. Spice and honey, as cliché as he thought it was. It was like one of Chuck's badly written love scenes, but Dean figured that love was sort of stupid any way. As he leaned over her and positioned himself between her legs, probing at her heat, he thought about how maybe he was stupid after all. But with this beautiful woman, her cerulean eyes glazed with passion but alert with nervousness, he decided that he would be an idiot for the rest of his life if he could spend it with her.

He began to push into her, gasping at how tight she was. Never before had any woman he been with been so tight. He had to stop just to gain control.

Thea was stiffening up, scared about how this would all feel. It stung as he filled her, her body still slightly sore from the damage inflicted on it only days ago. She winced as she thought of it but quickly banished the thought from her mind. That wasn't Dean who raped her. This, right here and now, was her Dean.

He paused, cupping her face in his hands. He leaned his forehead against hers. "Are you alright?" he asked huskily, trembling with the amount of effort it was taking not to start his rhythm.

She kissed him thoroughly and brought her hips to his, pulling him deeper inside of her. They both gasped in delight, and without wasting another moment, Dean began his slow thrusts into her.

It was uncomfortable for her at first, but his hands and his mouth took it all away. He kissed all over her face, over her eyelids, her nose, her lips. He traced a line down to the column of her throat, kissing and sucking his way down to her breasts, using his hands and mouth to memorize her body.

She felt incredible. Never in his life, through all the women that he had been with, had any of them been so amazing. She was so new to the whole experience and yet she met him thrust for thrust, even has he went harder and faster. She moaned his name and scratched at his back, begging for the same release she had felt at the beginning. Dean was quickly finding out that he had a very hard time denying her anything, so he brought her to her peak again, joining her with his own for those few seconds of pure bliss.

Stars flashed and sounds got louder and for a moment, Thea could swear that colors were brighter. Dean had tensed above her and then collapsed, wrapping his arms all the way around her and squeezing her tight. Little aftershocks overtook them as they lay there panting, their heartbeats calming down.

Dean left her reluctantly and rolled over, dragging her into the crook of his body. He was delighted to discover that her body nestled into his perfectly.

Thea was astounded. She ran her fingers lightly over the contours of his chest and his shoulders, his arms and his face. She couldn't believe that this had happened for her. She had assumed that she would never have the opportunity to have sex and enjoy it. She had figured she'd die a virgin and if she wasn't so lucky, it would never be enjoyable.

She thought about how she had cursed him in the beginning, swore that she would hate him after what happened, but as she drifted off to sleep in his arms, she finally admitted to herself what she found on the first day.

_Who am I kidding?_ she thought to herself as the world darkened. _ I've loved him since from the very first moment that I laid my eyes on him._

She cuddled into him and sank into a peaceful slumber.

_His body shook with uncontrollable fury and unsatisfied lust as he walked into the door with the woman he met at the bar. He took her furiously, savagely, forcing all of his anger into that woman, thrusting so hard it was almost painful for her. He bit and scratched, tore clothes and pulled the hair this woman, this poor woman who had no idea what she was getting into when she smiled at him seductively at the bar. She couldn't decide if she liked being fucked so hard, but when her orgasm came, she realized she had enjoyed it more than she thought. He didn't care though. All he could think about was how they were together, right now, doing everything that he wished he could do. He never got his answers, but when did he? He flung the woman away from him when he was done, still not sated. She didn't care, just curled up and fell asleep beside him. He laid there, still hard, his body craving what it couldn't have. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but what he did know was that if something didn't happen soon, it was going to get extremely ugly extremely fast._


End file.
